They can do all that, and yet Amazon can't tell me when I finish book 2 in a series what book 3 is without my actually having to go to the site and look it up.

Well, between this and the library keeping track of what you rent, I'd say we're all better off sitting by the pool reading Marx rather than Womack. Since they're going to know what we read, anyway....

Never thought about it, doesn't surprise me in the least, and makes me glad I'm so low-tech.

At least their not using drones...

This is not to accuse anyone of being naive about how these companies can use these technologies to watch our reading habits... But Of course they can. Of course they can. Of course they can. I think Savant is NOT an idiot, but he is mistaken: These ARE drones! And they're right on target.

My mouth watered at Wednesday's announcement of the Nexus 7. Gorgeous screen, multiple processor cores, camera... All for $200 bucks!

Then you realize it's inexpensive, like the Kindle Fire, because it's mostly a sales platform for media and contracts.

We've got to be realistic about this. Gmail recently became the biggest webmail service in the world... And they did it by selling advertising. They're the best. Even if you're richer than Trump and you're never, ever going to need to buy any of the things in their advertisements, you can't get the best email without advertising... That's what pays the freight. It's free to Donald Trump just like it's free to a homeless guy at the public library.

Except that...

(Keep reading)

Except that you CAN get it without advertising, and you don't need to be rich for that, either. You can use (free) Adblock Plus software on your browser. This is really important. Even if you use the Google Browser (Chrome), you can use software to remove essentially all the Google ads. And Google will help you find the Adblock software. They'll link to it on their lists of popular stuff, and they'll buffer the files on their own servers. They'll do these things even though it's completely contrary to their business interests and to the implicit contract you have with them.

Similarly, these Android book readers can be stripped of their commercial tools, so you can use them with your private movies and text files. Doing that requires more work than most consumers will want to do... But again, that's why the hardware is so cheap.

M'kay?

So let's not act like Captain Renaults, as we expected all this wealth and convenience to flow into our lives for nothing.

Of course we should be vigilant, but this is a time of crazy wealth for the common man. Let's not be so small-minded that we lose sight of that.

Gmail has ads? Oh, so it does. I hadn't noticed. One of the reasons Google have been so successful with this model is that their ads are unobstrusive

There are legitimate concerns, but... in general, people get way too over-excited about this. The sort of data they'll be extracting is in slices of millions of users, not individuals. Whether it will really help them is another matter. New Coke was focus group tested too.

On the other hand, one thing that is worth being careful about is telling people the ads that are being targeted to you. An example from the comments section at Cracked.com

[Comment] What the hell? I went from reading about crazy Jews to looking at a picture of a chick blowing a shemale down by the ads. I'm so confused...
[Reply] I think the ads are based on your Google searches because I search gun sites a lot and get mostly gun ads. You on the other hand might want to erase your cookies.....

Hmmmm...the ad to the left as I type this is for a show on my local public TV network called "Dumb, Drunk, and Racist"!

If you use Firefox you may also want to get Ghostery as well.

I prefer my old fashioned BoOK. Boots up instantly to my saved place. Never runs out of power. Is lightweight and portable. Can't be retroactively removed from my collection by the seller. Lasts virtually forever. Can provide warmth if need be. And Big Brother doesn't get to peek into my reading list Who could ask for more?

Privacy is dead, and that people are still surprised by this is the only thing that surprises me.

Anything you do online can be tracked. There are ways to limit how much can be tracked, as Crid points out, but if you want to be part of a modern society (comment on blogs, do online banking, shop online), the price is that your life isn't lived under the cover of darkness anymore.

The only way around this is to completely detach from the world, and even that's no guarantee. If you use credit cards, ATMs and cell phones, your life can and will be tracked. If you live in a mud hut located in an empty field, Google Street View will probably still have a shot of your home online. Fortunately, most of us live deadly boring lives, and the only thing companies will use the information for is selling us more stuff.

"Bookworm-Watching: This Disgusting Privacy Violation Creeps Me The Hell Out"

How is this a violation of your privacy? Didn't you agree to their terms and conditions when you bought the e-book reader? Isn't that how capitalism is supposed to work? Individuals can choose to freely enter into legally binding contracts with other people/businesses if it's in their best interest to do so.

Feelin' bad about the "$200 bucks" thing. You can bet that if Jeff Bezos were going to publish this for the Kindle, he'd fix that through software, like, automatically.

Which is easier?

Bitch and whine about a company for providing a service for free or in which your agree to TOC.

Or

Do something about it. If you are worry about your privacy or anything. Learn about it and find ways to protect yourself.

There is amazing and useful software out there in to help you.

Some adjustment of behavior and habits and you can increase your security and privacy.

"Well, between this and the library keeping track of what you rent..."

No library that I know of keeps a record of what you check out. In fact, our library erases the information immediately upon checkin so we can never be subpoenaed by the government for that information.