SANTA MONICA, CA— In a shocking report certain to fuel growing privacy concerns, the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog released evidence Friday that suggests Amazon may be listening to its customers through hardcover copies of Michelle Obama’s book Becoming. “Amazon has tricked millions of consumers into believing the former first lady’s memoir is a harmless form of entertainment, when its real purpose is to obtain your personal data and sell it to marketers,” said the report’s author, Elena Gracia, who explained how cameras and microphones embedded within all 24 chapters of the number-one New York Times bestseller were capable of continuously recording everything a reader said and did within a 20-foot radius of the volume. “Even if the book has been closed and placed on a shelf, it still picks up every word of your private conversations and sends them straight to Amazon headquarters. It’s really insidious, too, because they’ve tricked people into thinking of Michelle Obama as a friend, when in reality, she’s helping Amazon make money hand over fist. If you’re one of the approximately 10 million people who has purchased a copy of Becoming, you should really consider if the potential violation of your privacy is worth it.” Gracia added that there have even been reports of a few alarming instances in which the Michelle Obama memoir has repeated her readers’ private conversations back to them verbatim.

Advertisement