[protomyth]

If you have Ford's version of OnStar, then yes you do and they lock the damn car down.

Amazon has control over the devices they sell you. They seem to use this power to purge books from your device. They could be a bit more helpful and lock the device and provide law enforcement the information. Asking for a warrant or other court order is just making an economic decision not a moral one.

[Tyrannosaurs]

That's a separate paid for service specifically designed for this.

[protomyth]

Yes, but Apple's find my phone isn't, and Amazon expects to continue earning money and providing services to Kindle owners long after the purchase. It is a simple case of maximizing profits over customer service. Much like PayPal and eBays foolishness from a customer perspective, but great from a bottom line.

[Tyrannosaurs]

Fair enough but Apple advertise the feature, Amazon don't.

The primary issue here for me is actually around data protection and privacy.

Amazon are being asked to give up private data to the police without the owners permission (remember the data now on the Kindle is owned by the thief) based on nothing more than an allegation (at this point how do the police know that the device has been stolen, that it's not disputed ownership or been sold on?).

I can see why the owner is frustrated but I can also see why Amazon are doing what they're doing. We're very quick to give organisations grief when they start giving out personal details unreasonably (and rightly so) but one consequence of that is organisations will likely move to a safety first model which seems to be happening here.