[pjl]

Ars Technica followed up with Amazon and got this response:

"In the fall when we released Fire OS 5, we removed some enterprise features that we found customers weren’t using," Amazon told Ars. "All Fire tablets’ communication with Amazon’s cloud meet our high standards for privacy and security including appropriate use of encryption."

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/amazon-removed-device...

[toyg]

Translation: they use ssl on the wire, but don't encrypt anything when storing data.

Exhibit #13435245 for why Fire devices are purely consumption-oriented Amazon endpoints, not real tablets.