The Southern Adirondack Library System is committed to protecting the privacy of staff and members of the library community. We are concerned by the security and privacy implications of reports that Version 4.0 of Adobe Digital Editions (ADE 4.0) collects data about user reading habits and transmits this data to Adobe’s servers without encryption. This issue appears to only affect users who use ADE version 4.0 on a desktop or laptop computer for reading or managing eBooks in ePub or PDF formats. Using reading apps on your portable device does not seem to be affected. The Amazon Kindle (apps and readers) are not affected because Amazon uses propriety DRM to manage eBooks.
Adobe confirmed that it is gathering eBook readers’ data and has issued a statement:
“All information collected from the user is collected solely for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models by publishers. Additionally, this information is solely collected for the eBook currently being read by the user and not for any other eBook in the user’s library or read/available in any other reader. User privacy is very important to Adobe, and all data collection in Adobe Digital Editions is in line with the end user license agreement and the Adobe Privacy Policy.”
If you are concerned about using ADE 4.0 to access e-books, you can take one of the following steps:
1. Read eBooks on a portable device using a reading app.
2. Uninstall Version 4 of Adobe Digital Editions and install an earlier version. You can download earlier versions from http://www.adobe.com/support/digitaleditions/downloads.html.
Adobe says this issue will be resolved no later than the week of October 20th.
Please note, this issue relates to Adobe Digital Editions only. It does NOT relate to the use of Adobe Reader.