While the Kindle Fire has been a welcome addition to the e-book market, privacy concerns have come up about the device. More specifically on how the Amazon Silk browser handles data that will pass through the Amazon servers.

Amazon Silk is the default browser of the Kindle Fire. It is basically a way to make browsing faster and easier in the device by utilizing Amazon's bandwidth to cache and process web pages you browse. The process also saves battery time by executing client side process that browsers use in Amazon's servers then serving it back to the Kindle.

If you use Amazon Silk, when you type in the address which will be requested from the ISP. But the difference would be it would go straight to the Amazon servers where Amazon would use its high speed internet to get the web page, the images and do client-side processes like PHP scripts, JAVA, etc. and then send it back to the ISP and back to your device. It would be like adding another middle-man to the whole process.

There is also another browser that uses these features like Opera with Opera Turbo. The only difference between the two is that secured connections such as websites that start with https:// instead of http:// will not go through Opera's servers.

"All of your web surfing habits will transit Amazon's cloud. If you think that Google AdWords and Facebook are watching you, this service is guaranteed to have a record of *everything* you do on the web." according to Chester Wisniewski in Naked Security blog at Sophos. The concern is that Amazon will have a record of your browsing for 30 days which is stated at Amazon Silk's terms and conditions.

For those who are still concerned about their privacy, Amazon Silk also has an "off-cloud" mode. But this option will bare the capabilities of the Kindle Fire in battery performance and speed in regards to internet browsing.

Being an Android device, the Kindle Fire should be able to have a browser app available in the app store. However the store may have a great chance of being a walled garden and will not allow any browsing apps as it is not the Android Market