Since Adobe is not selling books, how do they benefit from parsing this data? If not for DRM-style tactics?
Are they selling it to third parties? Unless this is the case, then I'd say their obsession with DRM and rights management is the primary issue. Without of course discrediting that digital surveillance is the new standard.
As I said (well, quoted), it is for licensing -- Adobe is apparently trying to support some kind of "metered licensing," in which you might pay by how long you keep a book out or even by how far you read in it. Is that the same as DRM? In practice, mostly, since it's hard to see how that particular scheme would work without DRM. (But licensing is not the same as DRM, right? I buy a lot of DRM-free tech books, but that doesn't give me license to put those books up for free on my web site.)
But I'd nonetheless argue that the primary issue is not that Adobe is implementing new licensing schemes of dubious value. It's that Adobe implemented them in an exceedingly invasive way. I don't use Adobe Digital Editions unless I absolutely have to, but until now that's been because the software is awful, not because it's philosophically objectionable.
I'd also argue that it may not be entirely fair to describe Adobe as "obsessed with rights management"; they're providing a platform for publishers, and using DRM -- or not -- is the publishers' choice. The chances are high that the "metered licensing" concept was borne of publisher request, not an Adobe plan to make everyone's life difficult. Making everyone's life difficult is just Adobe's standard execution plan.
Are they selling it to third parties? Unless this is the case, then I'd say their obsession with DRM and rights management is the primary issue. Without of course discrediting that digital surveillance is the new standard.