Amazon Fire HD Kids Edition
Review date: 11/02/2020
Remember when long road trips meant drawing an imaginary line down the middle of the backseat and punching your sibling whenever they crossed it? Those days are over. Today there are tablets for kids. Amazon's Fire HD for Kids comes with a "kid-proof case" in bright, pretty colors and includes built-in parental controls designed to help parents feel better about giving their kids screen time. Toss in a 1-year subscription to Freetime Unlimited--access to a ton of "content kids crave" (which automatically rolls into a $2.99 per month subscription after one year)--and you've got your kid squared away for that long drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
What could happen if something goes wrong
What could happen? Well, Amazon could get to know your kid's personal information from the cradle on. Seriously, Amazon will be tracking your kid's viewing and browsing habits unless you opt out--and if you opt out, that means you'll lose services and features you probably don't want to lose. You can request Amazon delete your child's data, which is nice because it's unclear from Amazon's policies if you can do the same for yourself as an adult. The only way to be absolutely sure all this data is deleted--both your childs and your own--is to delete your Amazon account completely.
Privacy
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: Yes
App: N/A
Microphone
Device: Yes
App: N/A
Tracks Location
Device: Yes
App: N/A
What is required to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third party account
No
What data does it collect?
Personal
Parent/Guardian's name, date of birth, phone numbers, e-mail. Child's name, date of birth, gender
Biometric
Social
How does it use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record for protecting users’ data?
In October, 2020, Amazon fired an employee for leaking customer email addresses to an unnamed third party. In November, 2018, Amazon suffered a data breach that caused customer names and email addresses to be disclosed on its webpage.
Can this product be used offline?
User friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Security
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Uses encryption in transit and at rest.
Strong password
You will need to create a Child Profile. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3MTGN25XVMNWTFX
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Amazon has a bug bounty program, which means that anyone who finds a security issue and discloses it responsibly may get paid. Security researchers can report a vulnerability here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201909140
Privacy policy
Amazon provides many links to many documents. They are written in an FAQ style. It also has a specific FAQ around Children's Privacy. FAQ
