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Comment by illumin8 | Hacker News Reader

This comparison fails to acknowledge that part of the cost of the new Kindle Fire HD is mandatory ads on the unlock screen and the home screen, which can't be disabled. You can also safely assume that Amazon is closely tracking your usage and selling your demographics to advertisers.

In this case, Amazon is taking a risk by selling the Kindle Fire HD at or close to cost, and hoping to make it up in advertising revenue. This is the Google model in action.

Personally, my privacy is worth a little more than $200 to me, so no thanks. Not to mention that the iPad 3 still has a larger screen and several hundred thousand more apps, which is really difficult to put a price on.

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The KSO-enabled LCD tablets are following the same playbook as KSO-enabled e-Ink devices. Just as you can opt-out of e-Ink, you will be able to opt-out of LCD. The difference is we've found the vast majority of customers don't value opt-out, and so the option will be less prominent than before (in MYK or by calling CS).

Remember, the principle is to be the best tablet at any price -- so you will be able to protect your "privacy" for less than $200.

I put "privacy" in quotes because the ads don't actually track you or your usage. Doing so is the wrong thing and would jeopardize people using the tablets. The ads simply show up on the lockscreen and we record impressions. It's a pretty interesting ad product, and Amazon has put a lot of steps in place to protect customers.

"which can't be disabled"

Looks like they can be opted out of.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/07/amazon-confirms-yes-you-c...

From the URL you posted - "Amazon's support has since confirmed to an Engadget reader that the option to remove the ads will be "announced soon." Although full details aren't forthcoming"

In other words until the feature is announced you can NOT disable the ads.

Is your privacy risk through these particular ads really worth $200? In other words, do you think your information would add $200 to the bottomline of Amazon (or whoever is placing those ads)?

You can't relate the privacy risk to 'those particular ads'.

The advertisement you see doesn't mean anything- the risk comes through complete usage gathered by the advertising networks who bought the ad, and then resold to partners and affiliates.

The risk some of us worry about is that a data tsunami will eventually push total awareness of device users to a hostile government or facet of organized crime.

And while you would have worse things to worry about if the NSA or Google are compromised, there are millions of advertising affiliates and companies that share information and go bankrupt, which makes this concern a plausible fear in my mind

KSO ads aren't served by ad networks, and Amazon prohibits ad networks from having access to the ads for the very fear you mentioned. The only data recorded are impressions and ad-specific aggregate usage -- how many times did people watch the movie trailer? How many people converted? There are no tracking cookies included with the ads.

Amazon values its customers deeply and letting the third-party networks gather intel about its customers is a lose-lose proposition. Amazon loses its competitive advantage for having great data to make great recommendations, and customers lose their privacy. The ads don't work that way.

Amazon charges about $40-$50 for the no ad versions of some gear so let's say ads are worth that much to them. Ads that show up on lockscreen of a low battery tablet might be more of a nuisance then those on a kindle where the battery lasts weeks however.

Let's also not pretend price and ads are the only difference:

iPad "3": better screen, bigger screen, better SoC, better apps, better battery life, actually on sale at the moment.

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