Wrinkled Silk{2}
The article was about Amazon’s new tablet the Kindle Fire, and its browser, Silk, that tracks every habit of its customers while using the browser. It states that it utilizes Amazon’s cloud, Compute Cloud, to filter data in order to speed up connectivity to all websites compared to conventional web browsers. In order for it to occur every movement performed by the user whilst using the browser is recorded, raising issues about privacy.
I feel that this article shows the dilemma that developers and users face in order to enjoy improved connectivity speed. Personally I feel it isn’t right to overly monitor someone’s web session, for the sake of improved speed there has to be other ways. It seems that this method leads to more problems from an ethical and legal stand that Amazon hasn’t considered. Also, customers might be drawn away from purchasing the tablet altogether if their sessions are constantly monitored.
In this day and age were so much personal information is all over the Internet there must be other alternatives to increasing connectivity speed without logging each user’s session. Imagine if someone or some group hacked Amazon’s cloud they would have access to numerous tracking information of each user and use it for identity theft or defamation of that user. I cannot think of better time to use that old saying of “buyer beware”.
Sutter, John (2011, September 29). Amazon’s ‘cloud’ browser raises privacy concerns. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/29/tech/gaming-gadgets/amazon-silk-browser/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://cnettv.cnet.com/i/tim/2011/09/28/amazon_kindle_fire_1_320x240.jpg
Oct 02, 2011 @ 17:42:20
I definitely agree with you on the privacy and security stand point, but since this is a first for Amazon I can see why there would be some controversial ideas out there. This concept has been around for years and it looks like Amazon is hopping on the wagon and taking a stab. They have an advantage because it being based towards the mobile market which is blooming at the moment.
Oct 02, 2011 @ 22:16:06
This is indeed the oldest question we face. How far is too far? One thing is to have cookies stored on our machine that tell facebook or other companies what to advertise for us on their pages, but to actually have a log of every single one of our moves, I believe, is too far. I wouldn’t buy the device no matter how fast it went.