Amazon’s Silk Criticized By US Congress

By | October 17, 2011 | 5 Comments

Amazon's Silk Criticized By US CongressJoe Barton, a Texas Republican, voiced his discontent about the browser at a public hearing this week, while Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, urged Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for more clarity regarding the data collected from Silk users. The reason for the outrage had to do with how everything a user did in Silk, Amazon would know about. This isn’t the first time that Silk has caused privacy concerns to arise either.

Markey went into a bit more detail in a letter addressed to Amazon, stating that Silk is the only browser available for Silk and that Amazon could essentially keep track of each and every click its customers make. This includes knowing where people shop, what products they buy, when they buy them, and how much they pay.

Nevertheless, what the subcommittee will do is still written in the stars after conducting its hearings on consumer online privacy. The panel’s chair, California Republican Mary Bono Mack, appears to be conflicted about the matter, whilst Barton would like to see in depth legislation on the issue.


About (Author Profile)


Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.

  • Anonymous

    It’s unbelievable how uninformed politicians are content with being.

    Opera Mini has been doing very Silk-like things for years and years.  No outrage whatsoever.

    • Asknobody

      Silk could be the only one browser on Amaozn tablet, so you have no alternatives if you so much care about your privacy. On every device where you can found Opera Mini, you can choose alternatives. Also, Opera is not very much interested in data mining (at least yet), but for Amazon data mining is at its business core (for example, that’s how amazon.com works with its reccomendations)

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        But you have an alternative: don’t buy the Amazon tablet.

        The thing is: Opera Software don’t sell or use this data like Amazon can.
        And: I support Amazon, they having the ability of making their service better through their new browser is awesome news for customers, not the opposite.

  • Anonymous

    A Republican you say…..

    How interesting….

    Why don’t these politician’s do what they do best? Lie and get votes.

    • http://twitter.com/bricky149 Shane Bundy

      They do that too, now you know why they spend/want so much (or one reason, anyway). :P

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