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Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

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Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#161
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But instagram is not a bank. I understand not wanting yet another company to have my photo (which nowadays is pretty much knowing who you are) + phone number. Plus it shouldn't require personal identification to post a photo online, especially given how easy it has became to filter out illegal content automatically.

Both sides are reasonable, a common form of spam uses hacked accounts that have grown organically, the normal way, and have then been abandoned. Because they have been used the normal way they are ranked higher than accounts created by bots. So it isn’t that strange that the account is flagged if it suddenly starts posting and the first post is some product. It’s also reasonable not to want to provide Instagram not t…

> > I might as well let them delete my account that only follows a bunch of people I know without ever looking at their pictures.

> Both sides are reasonable, a common form of spam uses hacked accounts that have grown organically, the normal way, and have then been abandoned.

That does not seem to be the case here.

When it comes to money, sure, take caution. When it comes to a dozen-or-so followers+followees, abandoned a decade ago with hardly any posts... congratulations, your marketing efforts or network effects were successful and they're back. Now stop trying to steal their personal data under the guise of "security".

If you must, feel free to make a password recovery via their emergency mail or something, but don't try to steal personal data.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#162
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just Amazon. All big tech companies have this "trigger happy" approach to closing down accounts. Especially payment companies. I believe we need to pass down new consumer laws to protect the people. We pretty much rely on their services and they have no accountability.

The worst are banks and payment processors who sttaight out censor legal businesses. If porn/weed/crypto or other stuff is legal, then the bank should not be moral police and close their account. Banks are not police, or judicary system and one cannot run a company without a bank account. If they explain this with risk, then there should be some special state run bank that handles higher risk customers - and for exam…

> If they explain this with risk, then there should be some special state run bank...

Reasonable...but could you describe the elected politicians who will vote to establish that special state-run bank, and keep it going?

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#163
post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

Thanks for the summary but you're burying the lede - what the hell is a racist door bell?

It's a separate video on his channel which is probably a better listen than this one. This one is a bit of conjecture, perhaps true. The other has been validated by multiple sources, AFAICT.

Short summary - Someone had tied in most of their home automation to Alexa and found their account cancelled suddenly one day. They went through the automated recovery systems and were told to contact support, which they did. Support ended up transferring them to an Amazon exec (let's assume "manager") who told them their account was disabled because an Amazon delivery driver reported that someone said something racist to them over their video doorbell (which wasn't a Ring, ironically).

Upon investigating, checking cameras, logs, etc,, the owner determined that (a) no one was home at the time of the delivery, (b) the driver was wearing headphones, (c) the doorbell had done an automated, "Hello, how can I help you?" response to the driver as they were walking away (presumably ring-and-dash or drop-and-dash delivery, as usual).

The driver had apparently, with the headphones on, completely misunderstood.

It took over a week to get Amazon to review all the evidence and reactivate the account. No apology at that point (although I believe I saw they subsequently have).

That's a bad look for Amazon, and the Youtuber makes a valid point that it's a bad idea to trust control of your home to a company that will make such boneheaded decisions.

IMHO, the only correct response for Amazon here is firing at least two people involved in the debacle, apologizing publicly, and promising to review and adapt their policies in response to the incident. Any halfway decent PR department at anything other than a mega-monopoly would be scurrying to do exactly that, but not Amazon apparently.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#164
post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

similarly, a few days ago I was working on a project with a couple of people and I had our meeting notes in a Google Doc. I went to share the doc with the people and was told that it wouldn't be possible due to "inappropriate content". after a quick scan of the text I realised that it was because the notes contained the word "imagery" - in relation to a logo. once removed, the problem went away, but it's disgusting t…

How did you figure that out from a quick scan? The word imagery is innocuous

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#165

Of course, it's not cool that Amazon can terminate anyone's account as they please. But I suppose it's their right. The real problem is Amazon having monopoly. If there were some true competition, I couldn't care less about Amazon closing my account as I could go to a competitor.

> The real problem is Amazon having monopoly. What does Amazon have a monopoly on?

According to this page, Amazon holds a dominant market share of 60-70% in book sales https://blog.gitnux.com/amazon-book-sales-statistics/

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#166
post #28

Summary: The YouTuber had his Amazon affiliate account canceled after 7 years without warning or evidence of wrongdoing. The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. He finds the timing suspicious as it came a week after he made a video criticizing Amazon for canceling a customer's account for a racist doorbell claim. He argues that t…

Thanks for the summary but you're burying the lede - what the hell is a racist door bell?

[deleted]

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just Amazon. All big tech companies have this "trigger happy" approach to closing down accounts. Especially payment companies. I believe we need to pass down new consumer laws to protect the people. We pretty much rely on their services and they have no accountability.

> All big tech companies have this "trigger happy" approach to closing down accounts. After years, I made my first Instagram post last week. I got instantly banned (it was a picture of a new bag I bought). Apparently the way to get it back is to jump through some hoops and post a selfie with an OTP. I decided that’s a bit much work and I might as well let them delete my account that only follows a bunch of people I k…

Several years ago I created an account there and it was banned before I even logged in. I appealed but never heard anything. I never figured out why was it was banned. I couldn’t find anything offensive in the name. At least, not in English (the only language I know).

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because affiliate marketing is cesspool of scammers doing scams at scale. I say this as someone who's measured marketing performance of these channels over the years.

So basically Google, with its smart algorithms, is doing 20x better job at weeding out scammers, than a company can do it itself?

I've been away from this area for a few years now...but I'd say "No, Google is not doing 20x better". However - Google is in a "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" position, and trusted far more than it deserves. And whether you're dealing with small business owners, or C-suites full of suits - there are a whole lot of "we gotta do X!" (even if the ROI looks for-sure negative) human emotions around Marketing. And when you're emotional, and feel that you gotta do something...then "buy IBM" usually feels like the least-bad option.

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#169
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently he also said its a few hundred per month. So his energy bill is over $800?

He operates a business, so that's not surprising.

So, he already managed to re-incorporate his ex NYC repair business in Texas?

Re: Amazon cancels my account after exposing account lockout for “racist doorbell” [video]

#170
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He operates a business, so that's not surprising.

So, he already managed to re-incorporate his ex NYC repair business in Texas?

Yes, https://rossmanngroup.com/

> Come to our store (Austin, TX) or mail your device to us and we will fix your problem!

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