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Amazon Go

(amazon.com)
1247 points mangoman | 7 comments | 05 Dec 16 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 1.585s | source | bottom
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vyrotek ◴[05 Dec 16 15:28 UTC] No.13105929[source]▶
They will most certainly be tracking a lot more than just you picking up your item. The data they collect about shopping behavior will be interesting.

Like, how long I hesitated before I picked up something, what I had already in my "cart" at the time, what deals I looked at but passed on, etc.

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TurboHaskal ◴[05 Dec 16 15:30 UTC] No.13105951[source]▶
Insurance companies will love it the most.
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intrasight ◴[05 Dec 16 15:31 UTC] No.13105970[source]▶
explain
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the_duke ◴[05 Dec 16 15:34 UTC] No.13106008[source]▶
So you eat lot's of unhealthy stuff?

While we are covering your high blood pressure medication?

Well, I guess we'll just increase your rates then...

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1. giarc ◴[05 Dec 16 15:44 UTC] No.13106102[source]▶
I doubt Amazon is in the business of selling your data to insurance companies.
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2. sqeaky ◴[05 Dec 16 15:57 UTC] No.13106225[source]▶
Only because its not profitable yet? Or do you have some other reason?

Why wouldn't they, have they demonstrated some level of ethics or concern for personal privacy?

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3. giarc ◴[05 Dec 16 16:01 UTC] No.13106279[source]▶
Because it's literally line 1 of their privacy policy about sharing user data.

>Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

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4. sah2ed ◴[05 Dec 16 16:47 UTC] No.13106720{3}[source]▶
That may be true today but in future, all they need to do is notify you that there has been a change in their privacy policy to permit them to share it with third-parties.
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5. giarc ◴[05 Dec 16 17:25 UTC] No.13107141{4}[source]▶
Maybe, but does it pass the test of "Would it make sense?". Ok sure Amazon could make a few bucks by selling the data to health insurance companies but does it make sense for Amazon to do that? Amazon customers find out, get mad and then stop buying stuff on Amazon. Health insurance companies know their customers buy junk food. There's tons of data about buying habits and population stats of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Their premiums already incorporate all this. Knowing the buying habits of their customers on Amazon isn't going to be of much value to them.
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6. sqeaky ◴[05 Dec 16 17:45 UTC] No.13107402{5}[source]▶
Amazon has done several manners of shady things. Remember when kept raising prices on products people bought often to assess what individuals would pay? Or how about the way they treat their workforce?

Amazon, and many other companies, do plenty of things that don't "make sense".

7. shostack ◴[06 Dec 16 03:41 UTC] No.13112066{3}[source]▶
Sure they don't sell it, just like Google and FB don't sell their data to advertisers. They package it in a way where they can auction a derived data set (often via advertising) or charge subscription fees to access some version of it.

They don't have to give up the core data asset to be useful to insurance companies in this case. They just have to do something like give people a health score or something similar.