It’s been ages since I’ve really done some deal hunting online with how ubiquitious Amazon is I’ve realized I’m not up to date with the current ecosystem for finding trustworthy online storefronts. Do you have any sources/tips for finding good quality products (especially with all the AI slop that exists nowadays)?
I have a friend who’s high up at Amazon. He said they don’t actually do anything with the data since the algorithm already just puts ads based on what you’re searching. They don’t sell the data or process it in any way
Well, this is processing the data, isn’t it?
Back in the days, some decades ago when Amazon “invented” the tracking and processing of every single mouse click in their online shop, it was big news in the IT world. First from a technical point of view, because it needed some serious computing power on their end, and it used up some bandwidth on the user’s end, which was much more limited at that time than today. And from a data privacy point of view, because it was a huge step towards this world of total surveillance, constantly ongoing manipulation, behaviour based advertisement, George Orwell etc.
Today we have gotten used to all that, even so much that such extreme statements have become possible, somewhat…
Your previous comment said you’re still doing them a favor by searching even if you don’t buy. If all they do is put ads on their site for your searches, then no, you’re not doing them any favors by just searching. If they were selling your data or processing it to use in other ways like market research or investments, then sure. Amazon only needs like four percent of their staff to run the site and push suggested purchases, there’s not a lot to it. Processing data is a very different beast when it comes to research and investments.
I think we should not believe it in a literal way. I guess this was simply the only kind of processing that this guy and/or his source knows and found worth mentioning.