I've actually put mine into airplane mode in the very first minute and keep it until now. Just to be safe.

Yeah, the ease of avoiding the ads (not logging in, jailbreaking it, or just getting a cover) were all big parts of why I felt like kindle ads were so much less offensive than most online advertising.

I wanted an ebook reader so I looked around and bought a Kobo Forma. It's great. No ads that I've noticed, I can load whatever I want onto it.

As I understand it, Kindle is locked to Amazon. I don't know why anyone would pay for that, especially if it also shows ads.

It's not locked to Amazon, I load whatever book I want just fine.