A woman says she was browsing Instagram’s Threads when she came upon scary information about Goodreads and Kindle integration.
“So I found out the other day from Threads that the books that you read on your Kindle are not just between you, your Kindle, [and] Jeff Bezos,” Ohio TikToker @notanotherromancebook says in a viral video. “They send out a little email to the people that you’re friends with on Goodreads, too, and they’re like, ‘Guess what Natasha read this week?’”
“Who authorized that?” she questions.
‘I THOUGHT IT WAS BETWEEN ME AND GOD’
In the comments section, viewers were shocked by the news, especially when they considered who they were friends with on Goodreads and what type of content they were reading.
“This has got to be a hipaa violation or smth,” one viewer said.
A second shared, “STOP!!!!! I’m an elementary school teacher and student parents have friended me on there! My Goodreads is NOT for the weak!!!!!!! OMG!”
Another said, “The way I just gasped and said NOOOOOOOOOO. Brb going to go unfriend people or make a burner Goodreads account.”
One offered a helpful tip: “There’s a spot in your kindle books info to mark as reading on goodreads, toggle it OFF girl.”
Others shared alternative reading or book review apps
One said a benefit of using library apps is that they don’t snitch on you. “Hoopla keeps my secrets…” they wrote.
A second suggested, “Abandon Goodreads for StoryGraph — created by a black female CEO (who would never do that to you).”
Another shared, “Yup my brother-in-law called me out at a family function if I can stop sending him emails about my book. Fable is where it’s at now.”
OK, but I don’t want to switch from Goodreads. How do I turn this OFF?
There does not seem to be specific information on this feature on the Goodreads Help website. However, on a Goodreads discussion thread asking, “How can [I] make it so people don’t get an email when I finish a book?” a respondent answered, “On the desktop site, go to Account Settings/Feed to select what you send to your feed. Whether or not friends get email notifications depends on their own preferences.”
So, it seems you must customize your Feed so it does not post anything when you finish a book.
In an email to the Mary Sue, an Amazon spokesperson shared the following:
- When a customer chooses to link their Goodreads account with Amazon, instructions here, they are able to opt-in to multiple features, including adding Amazon books to Goodreads, keeping track of Kindle reading on Goodreads, and sharing rating/reviewing activity with friends. You can find more information from the help page here.
- If a customer opts in to providing updates to Goodreads friends, they can change that setting at any time, as well as turn off updates for specific activity. More information here.
- Customers also always have the option to disconnect their Amazon and Goodreads accounts. More information here.
@notanotherromancebook apparently i read everything but the terms and conditions ? #goodreads #amazon #kindleunlimited ♬ original sound – notanotherromancebook ?
The Mary Sue contacted the TikToker via comment and direct message.
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