Amazon returns encryption feature after user privacy concerns

The feature will now be restored to the mobile platform after Amazon removed it last year.

Amazon originally justified the move, stating that customers were not using the privacy facility, however they now intend to re-introduce the feature towards the end of May.

The encryption tool digitally scrambles the information on the device, making it impossible to read unless ID information is correctly provided by the user.
Amazon users took to social media and the provider’s online forums to express their concerns.
“I will no longer be able to keep my business email… as our institution requires that encryption be used,” wrote one tablet owner on the firm’s forums. “I cannot believe Amazon just ‘deleted’ this critical feature.”


Another posted:

“In an era where devices store information on everything from browsing habits to bank information it’s nearly unthinkable for a company to deliberately remove the one feature that can protect a customer from identity theft if their device is lost or stolen.”

An Amazon spokesperson told the BBC: “We will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring.”