Sanders Media

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has apologized for the remote deletions of customer’s purchased materials. Those included George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. Here is his statement:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

While he is still a little vague regarding how Amazon would have done the current situation different, it is good that Amazon sees the harm they’ve done to themselves. I would still like to see them explicitly explain their policies from here on.

The recent row over Amazon’s decision to delete readers’ Kindle copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm has highlighted a growing problem. Do we really own our digital content?

I find this to be a disturbing question to have to ask. In the traditional world of buying and selling, once you’ve paid, the product or service is yours to keep. The seller or creator did not have rights thereafter. You could do with the product as you pleased. Now, Amazon has changed that equation by remotely removing purchased copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from its customer’s Kindles. Here is Amazon’s statement to it’s customers:

The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available. Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from the Kindle store.

I really have a problem with this. You wouldn’t have seen this happen with paper books. Therein lies another issue. Should merchants and content providers have the right to remove previously purchased content without the buyers permission?

Amazon tried to further explain themselves in this statement:

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

That still doesn’t address why the consumer should have to lose out because of Amazon’s mistake. In the end, I shouldn’t have to worry that iTunes, Amazon or any other digital merchant will remotely “disappear” content I’ve purchased. It feels like an invasion of privacy. Companies risk losing the consumer’s trust by acting in this way. Hopefully, they will soon understand that.

My last post got me thinking about ways to avoid trouble in the first place. Smart browsing can negate many of the online dangers we face. Here are some tips I’ve come up with.

1. Know who is using your computer. It is never a good idea to let someone you don’t know well have unfettered access to your computer. While no one wants to come across as suspicious, taking precautions is never a bad thing.
2. Set ground rules. Make family and friends aware of your expectations regarding your computer. It’s not like allowing them to watch your TV. Your computer contains private info, and has the capability send that info across the web.
3. Don’t go to sites that are unfamiliar. Many sites exist solely to plant malware on your computer.
4. Setup user accounts. An easy way to manage the use of your computer is to require user login. This allows you to control access to your computer at the point of entry.
5. Make sure you are using the most current version of your browser. Browsers are constantly updated to keep up with current threats. You can’t take advantage of these updated security features if you don’t update your browser.
6. Purchase a trusted security suite. I know most new computers come with a security suite, but I’ve found these to be sub-par. In my experience,  Trend Micro and AVG have the best total security suites. You’ll want the paid versions as they are much stronger than the free versions. If you’d like to do your own research, go to sites like CNET.com and Amazon.com. Ignore the professional reviews, and stick to the user comments. You can find out what works in real world environments by reading the user reviews.

There is no reason to be fearful of the dangers on the web. You only need to be wary. By using common sense and trusting your instincts, you’ll avoid most trouble.