Looking for privacy on an E-ink reader

Privacy Questions
1

I’m looking for an E-ink book reader that has the following:

  1. No wireless connectivity
  2. The ability to upload non DRM books from my PC over USB
  3. Blue light filter and brightness toggle

A password protection would be nice, but for books it doesn’t really matter.

This is surprisngly hard to find for some reason, every eink readers seem to use wifi, google play, bluetooth, I just want something fully offline and local.

I found the following on Amazon, but it has F.M. Radio capability for some reason?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vbestlife-Electronic-Readers-Function-Navigation/dp/B0BHZPS9FQ/

Does this look trustworthy? It’s the only one that I could find with an actual review that has only USB connection and isn’t rated like 1 star.

If this isn’t an option, I may do what everyone else I’ve seen around is saying a purchase Kobo, then flash a open source OS onto it.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

2
3

Just get a kobo, bypass the registration with sqlite3 How to bypass new Kobo setup screen? - MobileRead Forums

And then optionally install koreader One-Click Install Packages for KOReader & Plato - MobileRead Forums

No wifi necessary

Just because it has the capability doesn’t mean that you need to turn it on

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4

I can also vouch for a kobo. I got a libra 2 with koreader and wifi is disabled by default. Works well with calibre.

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5

If you are interested in a form factor that isnt a tablet, I just saw Linus from LTT review a desktop colored eInk monitor

6

I have a Kobo Libra 2 with KOReader and it is fairly better than the base system’s reader if you only sideload your books.
However, I am curious about the Pocketbook readers since the company’s ranked third “Least Creepy” in Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included.
KOReader also supports Pocketbook readers.

7

I have a Kobo for several years; it was the last before they introduced the library integration. The wifi setting can be turned off or on as it’s configurable. And if you don’t associate it with a SSID, it’s not going to be able to connect to anything on it’s own. During the night when you are sleeping.

8

Tolino was ok year ago, maybe it still is, I haven’t followed development and new models. I think they are owned by Kobo now, but I’m not 100% sure.

You can use SD card/internal storage for books, and even software updates could be done offline, from PC

They have wifi, but you can keep it off all the time

9

You can jailbreak a kindle and block amazon :man_shrugging:

10

I’ve not used it for this but I’ll through out the Pixel Tablet. With GOS that would obviously be the best option for physical security, aside from an iPad.

11

So I dropped searching for a while, I’ve made pervious posts about this and many mentioned kobo, watching side of burritos video almost made me think to get it but the top comment references how kobo is still involved in a fair amount of data collection. All I want is a eink screen that I can load pdfs onto via USB and just read no wireless connectivity, given this criteria, I have found one on Amazon, they seem to be taking it from aliexpress and reselling.

I’m just curious, despite it’s seeming inability to connect to anything wirelessly, is it possible that it could still have malicious software that would try insert a virus through a USB connection or have a brute force wifi module connector?

I know this sounds super tin foiled hat, though my cost for an unknown Chinese company selling these products for next to nothing isn’t exactly high.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuifati-800x600-Protect-Protective-Electronic-default/dp/B0BD772H66/