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For years, Amazon has collected detailed information about what its customers buy, considered buying, browsed for but never bought, recommended to others or even wished someone would buy them. It has built ever-more sophisticated tools to recommend more purchases, direct your searches toward products it thinks you’re most likely to want, or even stop the forgetful among us from buying the same book we purchased five years ago [source: Wired News]
At first instance, it may seem perfectly okay for Amazon to collect and store personal information in order to customize the returning consumer’s needs. But if Terri Schiavo’s parents can sell donors information to “direct mailing companies” (read spam), then Amazon certainly will not think twice about comprising user details in their time of need. But we as consumers are caught in a catch-22 dilemma. Amazon’s customized search enlightens us on different recommendations that otherwise we wouldn’t know about. Of course, this means that we allow Amazon to collect and store more and more information on our needs and preferences.
At what point do we safeguard our privacy? “To some privacy experts, Amazon has already crossed the line. Most recently, Amazon tangled with privacy advocates over a patent on technology that aims to track a shopper’s gift-giving habits, including the recipient’s age and preferences” [Source: Wired News]. Like it or not, every online vendor or service has information on you at least to create a basic profile. Now I sure would like to see what Amazon thinks of me.
by Patrix | on Tuesday, April 19th, 2005 at 2:00 am | 
Business, United States, World Wide Web . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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April 19th, 2005 at 2:42 pm reply
Creeps me out these customized ads…sometime i catch myself longing for the long gone pen n paper days…
April 19th, 2005 at 6:21 pm reply
Gabby - Freaky but customization is in!
April 19th, 2005 at 10:20 pm reply
Sure, they collect a whole lot of data, which is quite annoying (I find absolutely no reason for them to remember me buying a $10 book in 2001), but I have never once bought anything they suggested…I wonder how many people actually do
April 19th, 2005 at 10:40 pm reply
Spaceman - Actually many people do. Read this Wired article on Long Tail phenomenon that revived the fortunes of an out-of-print book solely due to Amazon’s recommendations.