Amazon continues to crackdown on Kindle ebook sharing

Summary

Amazon appears to be on a quest to close loopholes and to tighten security with regard to Kindle ebook-sharing.
Users on Reddit are reporting a new email from Amazon Kindle Support, signaling the beginning of the end for the Send to Kindle via partial domain function.
This functionality removal is expected to take hold beginning April 1.

When it comes to the Kindle ereader ecosystem, Amazon’s Send to Kindle utility has always been one of the more useful features available to end-users. The tool makes it easy to wirelessly send documents and digital book files directly to your Kindle, allowing you to take advantage of your E Ink display for a more comfortable reading experience.

For better or worse, it now appears that Amazon is cracking down on one historically available Send to Kindle loophole: the ability to use a partial email address or a partial domain to initiate the process. As reported by Good E-Reader, text files sent from an unapproved or incomplete address will fail to be delivered starting on April 1.

Bookworms on the unofficial r/Kindle subreddit quickly took note of a new email sent out from Amazon Kindle Support, in which the company appears to confirm the policy change in writing.

“To enhance security, Send to Kindle will only support complete email addresses (e.g., “kindlecustomer@xyz.com”) and will no longer support partial email addresses or domain-only addresses (e.g., “@xyz.com”) after April 1, 2025. This change helps ensure that only senders from emails you specifically approve can deliver documents to your Kindle,” reads the email from Amazon Kindle Support.

While this change is unlikely to affect most everyday consumers, it does put a damper on things in the education and enterprise scenes. Until now, some organizations have utilized domain-only email addresses to push out Advance Reader Copy (ARC) files to many users in a simultaneous capacity.

This Send to Kindle change will undoubtedly put ARC services like BookFunnel in a trickier situation going forward. As one Reddit user points out, the change might also break certain third-party app functions. Namely, the popular Readwise service provides a Send to Kindle feature that relies on a @readwise.io partial domain address to do its job.

One of Kindle’s most useful features was just discontinued for no real reason

Kindle users on Reddit are reporting receiving a warning message from Amazon about a feature going away soon.

The company recently deprecated the Download & Transfer via USB option across its Kindle lineup

A person reading on a Kindle Paperwhite.

Amazon made headlines just weeks ago, when it confirmed the removal of Kindle’s ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ option beginning February 26. This particular change gutted the ability for users to transfer and backup their Kindle-purchased ebooks directly via a wired USB connection.

Since then, some Kindle users have expressed their discontent with Amazon’s ever-tightening stance on ebook file transferring, digital rights management (DRM) policies, and ecosystem lock-in. Ownership in the digital age is a touchy subject, and, unfortunately, books are just as susceptible to nebulous licensing terms as digital movies, TV shows, and video games are.

Thankfully, for the foreseeable future, the Send to Kindle feature itself will continue to operate normally — so long as you provide a full-length email username, and avoid using a domain-only address.