I wasn't aware of Pocketbook, interesting to see a smaller competitor in this market. Unfortunately they might run into the same issues discussed in this article.

They have two privacy policies. The one which seems to cover their web site [1] and one which I assume is for their devices [2].

The latter says the following:

> We collect such non identified information concerning the Application:

> […]

> Usage Data includes information about how you use our Application. By Usage Data we mean: how you use your book library, information concerning which buttons on the Application you click, which you do not, how often do you use buttons, turning on/ off the device, setting font options, changing the interface language, sending archive, changing the library settings, setting the read mode. We collect these information to make our Services better for the end-customers. Understanding of your usage preference give us the opportunity to develop better Application, which will have higher reliability, usability, compressed functionality and extremely easy startup.

The first privacy policy [1] though says they do not collect any "Special Categories of Personal Data about you".

[1] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/privacy-policy

[2] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/reader-mobile-privacy-notice

Can't you just never connect your device to the internet though?

Are you saying it's hard to get phones recognized as external storage devices? I've not had this issue with any of my android phones or my Boox e-reader which runs android.

Yes, that is what I meant, I always had problems with it. Iirc Android uses the mtp protocol for file transfer, it is not like accessing external storage. Before I can read / write files to the phone's storage I have to perform some steps on the phone's UI (this already rules out doing this while the phone is off); the exact steps changed between android versions. And then if I manage to remember, not all files and directories are visible.

With a pocketbook, you connect it and it is like you attached a USB stick.

Gotcha. Yeah, you get a notification from which you can swap mode. Default being charging only, for security reasons.

Also, android encrypts the filesystem by default these days I believe. So unpowered fs access is a no go without a lot of work for a very niche use case.

Security doesn't really matter on a somewhat dumb e-reader though, so seems like sensible defaults for the respective devices tbh.