Anyone familiar with WOWIO?

[Uncle Yuan]

I stumbled across this site today: WOWIO.  They distribute free .pdf files of books - public domain classics, indy comics and graphics novels, you name it.  It looks like a neat service, but I wanted to see if anyone had experience with them before jumping in.

[zuludelta]

Haven't used it,  but there are a couple of (mostly positive) reviews floating around the 'net. One thing I'm wary about with free online services is what they do with the personal information that you inevitably have to provide. As with most other free services, WOWIO turns a profit by selling online adspace, and also by selling their customers' personal information (including tracking your online activities with the use of third-party cookies, which shouldn't be confused with the less-invasive, typical first-party cookies) to sponsors and advertisers. A quick look shows that the site asks you for the following info: birth date, zip code, credit-card number, gender, race (wtf?!), formal-education attainment, occupation, and salary.

I've been pretty paranoid of online data collection ever since I took a course on the history of data collection mismanagement, and while their site's privacy notice seems to say all the right things, they also make it clear that while WOWIO collects, stores, and transmits your information in a secure manner, what their sponsors do with the personal information you provide WOWIO is out of their hands. Basically, WOWIO isn't accountable for anything that happens to your personal information once it reaches their sponsors (which is where it's supposed to go anyway, since that's what the sponsors are paying for). In the end, though, it comes down to you deciding if the risks to personal and online privacy outweigh the convenience of the free books. 

I also found out recently (just today, in fact) that Mike S. Miller works in their comic book division. Guy runs Alias Comics (or Alias Enterprises, or Abacus Comics or whatever they're calling themselves now), which was in a bit of a controversy a couple of years ago with issues of non-payment of its employees (and let's not even get into his notoriously ridiculous online/message board behaviour). It wasn't something on the same scope as Pat Lee and Dreamwave stiffing their artists and writers (particularly because Alias is/was a smaller company) but still, colour me at least a little cautious and leery.