London - Escaping from the hectic world to curl up with a good book is one of life’s simple pleasures.
But thanks to the popularity of e-readers, it seems that when you settle down to enjoy a novel you’re no longer alone.
The digital devices track which books you read - and can monitor the passages you dwell on and the time you put your book down at night to go to sleep.
Michael Tamblyn, of Kobo, said it collects information from users to recommend new books and boost sales. ‘We’re synchronising a bookmark constantly as you move along,’ he said.
‘That gives us insight into how you’re engaging the book that you’re in... so if you have stayed up through the night and you can’t put that book down, that helps us find other books from other people who have had that same kind of experience.
‘When you think about the number of books people buy and don’t finish, the “other people who bought this also bought this [formula]” isn’t that good a way to try to recommend a book.’
Amazon’s Kindle device also collects information about users’ habits, monitoring how long they spend reading as well as remembering the last page they read.
The internet giant reserves the right to store the information collected by Kindles on its servers.
Renate Samson, of the privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘It is rather alarming to think that whilst you read your e-book your e-reader device is reading you.’
Tamblyn said that Kobo was collecting data to help it increase the e-book market.
‘What we’re interested in is where does the next 20 percent come from? We think it will be people who are holding on to print much more tightly than in the past,’ he said.
Daily Mail