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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]

#241

Post by throwaway290 »

Semaphor wrote: post #81
arthur_sav wrote: post #53

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…

Did you use any tags in your post? And which tags if you did? Keep in mind that other users can report. If your bag appears in my timeline by misusing a tag I'm subscribed to it's an insta-report because man you can't imagine how many spammers there are pushing dropshipped goods from China.

And even if no one reported you if you don't have 2fa etc I'd say it's reasonable for FB to assume your (IG) account was sold, hacked or swapped.

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

#242

Post by sidewndr46 »

tyingq wrote: post #233
vifon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. Why is this even a problem? A purchase is a purchase.

They do have a policy that they deduct purchases for friends/family, but the tone of the wording is that they seem to recognize it happens: "Why is there a deduction for personal use of the program? We do not pay referral commissions for products you purchase through your own links. This includes orders for customers, orders on behalf of customers, and orders for products to be used by you, your friends, your relativ…

That's a really curious policy. In my family I know of at one person who after an 18th birthday discovered they were adopted. People they thought as on unrelated were actually sisters and brothers etc. How would you square that up with Amazon's policy?

"friends" and "associates" is easy to square up and try and define. My business partner is obviously an associate, my neighbor I cook BBQ with is a friend. How would I know who is my relative? What defines relations?

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

#243

Post by kotaKat »

pyeri wrote: post #16
codegladiator wrote: post #3

Amazon needs a process before deleting accounts to check if the target has a big social media presence somewhere that it might create a backlash. Such accounts need to be handled differently.

How much of a nuisance it really is if an American got cancelled by Amazon+Google? Assuming any attempt to create an alt account will be thwarted by the process (name won't match credit cards or bank accounts, etc.), I can imagine a dystopian future ~20 years from now where such people will become absolute pariahs in the society. Especially if the current trend of smaller tech companies cow towing the lines of establ…

I got cancelled by PayPal for arbitrary "we can't tell you" reasons. I'm already a pariah. I can't send money to my friends (especially internationally), can't commission artwork (because people use PayPal), can't buy stuff with protection online...

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

#244

Post by Semaphor »

throwaway290 wrote: post #241
Semaphor wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Did you use any tags in your post? And which tags if you did? Keep in mind that other users can report. If your bag appears in my timeline by misusing a tag I'm subscribed to it's an insta-report because man you can't imagine how many spammers there are pushing dropshipped goods from China. And even if no one reported you if you don't have 2fa etc I'd say it's reasonable for FB to assume your (IG) account was sold, h…

Not sure about IG, but my FB account has a yubikey.

The only tag was the brand of the bag

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

#245

Post by bombcar »

mihaaly wrote: post #176
_v7gu wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he considers his subscribers as family :^) Man, I’m really happy I have cancelled my prime and have non-amazon options for online shopping.

May I ask for your alternatives? It could be useful for me too.

For the USA I've found that Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy together satisfy much of my "need that free shipping on cheaply made shit" desire.

You do still have to watch out for marketplace items on some of them. And if it really IS direct-from-China why not go to eBay or Alibaba?

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

#246

Post by optimalsolver »

thrw_aus wrote: post #74
arthur_sav wrote: post #53

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.

[flagged]

I unironically have no issue with racists being locked out of their homes. Perhaps with the doorbell robot giving them sarcastic responses to their pleas.

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

#247

Post by failTide »

tyingq wrote: post #233
vifon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies. Why is this even a problem? A purchase is a purchase.

They do have a policy that they deduct purchases for friends/family, but the tone of the wording is that they seem to recognize it happens: "Why is there a deduction for personal use of the program? We do not pay referral commissions for products you purchase through your own links. This includes orders for customers, orders on behalf of customers, and orders for products to be used by you, your friends, your relativ…

It's also disturbing that they might be tracking who your friends and family are even though you never told them.

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

#248

Post by jefftk »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #224
jefftk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> firing at least two people involved in the debacle The idea that after a mistake companies should fire people leads to company cultures that are overall worse for everyone, including customers/users. Demand that they apologize, even that they give compensation, but not firing.

Apologizing is useless when the power remains

Amazon is a large entity with complex processes. Firing one of the people involved in implementing those processes does not make things better for users or affect how much power Amazon has in the situation.

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

#249

Post by bombcar »

smcl wrote: post #123
unreal37 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you attempt to use a credit card that you haven't used in years, the bank will similarly ask you to verify your identity. I don't think it's weird that unused valuable accounts need re-identification when you start to use them again. I don't mind anti-spam measures in cases which are common spam techniques. Hijacking unused accounts is common enough to warrant an approach like this.

Wait so if you have a "backup" card in case of emergency, the chances are it'll fail anyway? I kinda hate this stuff where we have to guess at how some company's internal mystery processes work to actually use their service :-/

Yes, if you want to have a "backup" card make sure you use it somewhat regularly.

So for example, a backup card you use for gas only, or a store-branded Mastercard that you only usually use at that store.

You still run the risk of a block, but it's reduced.

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

#250

Post by Gigachad »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #223
coldtea wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason given was that purchases made through his links were for personal use or made by friends and family, which he denies He has 1.8 million subscribers and talks about gear. There's no way his affiliate purchases were done by "friends and family" in any significant number above 0.1% to even matter. It's just Amazon payback BS.

I don't doubt Amazon did this for retaliatory reasons but the wording of the email he received is no doubt a result of the employee tasked with shutting down his account only having a handful of "reason templates" to choose from.

I don’t think this really matters. It’s still the email they sent out and should be held accountable for.
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