Amazon has been tracking webpages visited by Kindle Fire users on its web browser to offer relevant trend-based recommendations, the online retailer admits.

Silk, the company’s web browser, is a critical application on Kindle Fire, and Amazon’s grip on these Android tablets highlights its plan to gain traction into the hardware business.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) render webpages on Silk, but Amazon now confirms it also counts webpage views to provide suggestions to its users.

The cloud acceleration service maintains accumulative count of webpage views to build a list of most visited websites.

“The Trending Now feature is determined by aggregated web page views. Customers can turn off the cloud acceleration feature of Silk from the settings menu at any time, and their data will not be aggregated for the Trending Now feature,” said an Amazon spokesperson.

While it automatically enrolls Kindle Fire users by default, Amazon’s cloud acceleration feature offers an option to disable the service, the company representative confirmed.

The opt-out feature is always available for users any time they want to stop Amazon from tracking their internet usage; it does delete previous data when disabled.

On Thursday, Amazon launched an updated lineup of its Kindle tablets and e-readers.

More:

Amazon Unveils Kindle Fire HD, Updates Kindle Tablets And E-Readers

US Lawmakers Express Privacy Concern About Amazon Silk Browser

Amazon Silk Web Browser Criticized for Security Concerns

Image: kodomut via Flickr (CC)

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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