I’ve been critical of the Amazon’s intention to spy on its Kindle customers, but it is nice to hear that whatever information it is gathering, it will try to keep it private. An investigation was undertaken by the federal government of Robert B. D’Angelo, culminating in a grand jury indictment against him for not accurately reporting the revenue from the sales of books and other merchandise on Amazon.
The Department of Justice wanted to obtain the customer records originally from 24,000 customers but then narrowed it to 120 individuals who purchased used books via Amazon in the past four years. According to the Order (pdf link), “[t]he government does not suspect Amazon or D'Angelo's customers of any wrongdoing, nor does it consider them victims of D'Angelo.” In June, Judge Stephen Crocker refused to allow the requested access to the customer records. The ruling was unsealed yesterday.
Crocker wrote, in his order, “The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their prior knowledge or permission. . . . it is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading …
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