Amazon

[#1]

Did anyone watch Panorama last night about Amazon. I missed it but have just read an article on tha BBC news website about Amazon and how much information it has about us...very interesting read. Maybe the other thread that asks do you trust Google should include Amazon as well. Worth a read.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/CLQYZENMBI/amazon-data

Worrying

[#2]

@TTman 

On my list to watch. 😃

Got sidetracked with David Baddiel's 'Confronting the Holocaust Denial'.

More that well worth a watch in opinion, and more than worrying.

[#3]

Quite astonishing the data that is farmed from you. I think a woman said that for 100 purchases, 16 gig of data had been collected. Add to that they are selling access to the Ring doorbell footage (just to US law enforcement at the moment), but big brother is definitely watching/ scraping!

You ought to click the "download data" option of Facebook to see how much they hold on you too!!

[#4]

I said in another thread that amazons fulfilment business means it can collect information about you without you ever deliberately using their services. Guess I was right huh..

[#5]

@Marksfish 

"You ought to click the "download data" option of Facebook to see how much they hold on you too"

I did that last year and jeepers creepers it's scary, really scary.

[#6]

I have said before that alexa is a spy in your home, that people willingly let in to spy on them.... this was confirmed in last nights program by previous senior Amazon employees that they turned alexa off when they were discussing anything important because they knew conversations could be recorded and uploaded.......and as for the amount of data Amazon harvests,  they know more about us than we know about ourselves..

[#7]

@wotsup 

They also seem to know what we think, and what we think we know.

What was it Rumpsfeld said about 'known knowns' ?

Chatting to a family member in their home last week and unknown to me they had an Alexa. Anyway, halfway thorough a discussion about something or other and they said "Alexa, what is..."

Done to impress, but all I was unimpressed with was how wonderful they thought it was. 

[#8]

Well, I do quite a bit of online shopping with Amazon, and to be honest, I don't see much that says they are 'profiling' me. Maybe the 'frontpage' shows suggestions based on my previous shopping, but I rarely, if ever, take notice - if I log in, It means I intend to find (or hope to find) a particular product - not one they 'think' I want. If I find said item at a price I am prepared to pay, I place the order and log out - simples.

If they clain this tracking enables them to make personalised suggestions, the alograthims are seriously screwed - the 'Daily Offers' email may just have one item in about 30 days that makes me think 'would I like that?'/'do I need that?'

[#9]

It going to sound like paranoia, but is there more to it.

Information is not contained within Amazon, it might well be shared or sold on to others. No man is an island as they say, but where we need to be part of a community in order to thrive, do we also need to be part of cyberspace in the same way and over which we have limited choice and no control.

It does feel sometimes like shopping online is akin to autocorrect in that sometimes 'they' get it right whilst at other times 'they' get it wrong and leaves us thinking err, I don't so. Then there are those posts we make without noticing that wrongly substituted word causing the grammar Gestapo to swoop in on us with undisguised joy. 

So if those cabinet castors I have just ordered from Amazon which autocorrect tells me are Castro's and a box of Cuban cigars turn up instead.... well what the heck!

Think I need to watch that programme about Amazon. 😃

[#10]

@Minivanman That certainly sounds like paranoia 😉

Before you finally place the order, you are clearly advised what you are buying, so if it isn't what you thought, you go back and order what you really want - and then they send you an email confirmation, which again tells you what you've bought - and contains a link to cancel - if you want.

[#11]

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@jab1 wrote:

 I place the order and log out - simples.

If they clain this tracking enables them to make personalised suggestions, the alograthims are seriously screwed '

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But it isn't screwed. Tracking cookies can still be used after you've logged out - and not just by amazon. Any advertising agency that is inside a site that you've looked at for a product can share that information with other sites such as amazon and if that agency is in those other sites too then the data is shared pretty much instantly as the same cookie is recognised by the ad agency.

Logging out means nothing. Thats what so few don't realise.

[#12]

I also clear cookies after visiting ANY site where I have made a purchase, and 3rd party cookies are blocked by deffault in my browser.

Amazon still don't offer me anything I might remotely want in their 'Daily Offers', and I rarely see ads anyway - uBlock is 99% effective at ensuring that.😁

[#13]

My wife tried to join weight watchers online and they said she had to accept cookies - now that shows that their A1 is a bit screwed up....

[#14]

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@wotsup wrote:

their A1 is a bit screwed up....

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The A1 isn’t theirs.

[#15]

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@wotsup wrote:

My wife tried to join weight watchers online and they said she had to accept cookies - now that shows that their A1 is a bit screwed up....

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Not really. The EU dictated that websites must warn users that cookies are in use and need to be accepted where a website requires them to function. Consequently we've not got all of those pesky "we use cookies" banners over every website you visit. The reality is that the EU is out of touch and preventing nothing - by the time that banner has been displayed seeking your consent the cookie has already been sent in the http headers which come before the html source code for the very page being displayed. That's how the http process works - like this:

Headers

HTML Source code.

 There is a single blank line between the two so that the browser knows where the headers end and the html source starts. The headers are not typically seen in html source either for those who've never encountered them before and so doubt what i say. Among the headers you'll see lines like: 

set-cookie:

LithiumVisitor=~2bRy5iFcDFBTRUdjh~s2RV2Vl1CcH_4d5dLQe3z_fI4kPItSNh67nkUP7CvHpiNGcp5TndiLV0NzRH1_R0xxpF0neZLSeASj7k5lJ5cA..; Expires=Mon, 18-Feb-2030 02:10:37 GMT; Path=/; HttpOnly

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That is the header which tells the browser to create a cookie and set it to the following values.

Any website which requires you to login NEEDS a session cookie to be set - which is then SENT BACK to the server when you click a link or submit the login form - this is how the server at the other end can identify you and access it's database content to create a page to send back to you.

The problem is that many websites will start a session before you even login just so that it can enable access to the database for an annonymous user and that is where the EU's lack of understanding has fallen flat on it's face - by the time you see that banner asking for your consent to set a cookie, it's already been sent to your computer in the headers.

So if you think the weight watchers website is screwed up, you need to think again..