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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]

#311

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #227
mysterydip wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not only has Google given themselves the right to scan your documents You agreed to it: "We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our Program Policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies or the law." https://www.google.com/drive/terms-of-service/?hl=en Their list of policy violations is quite long: https://support.google.com/do…

I love this Brazil-world (the film) we have created for ourselves.

"Satyrical dystopia now documentary with life-pro tips"

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

#312

Post by eduction »

jefftk wrote: post #191
NotTheDr01ds wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Sup…

> 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.

Yes and I find it similarly extreme that a company would disable someone's doorbell because one person claimed something racist was said through it (?!?!). Are they going to set up a little Amazon Ring court to adjudicate every claim??

If Amazon hadn't taken that extreme step in the first place, the stakes wouldn't be so high, and there would be less reason to discipline the employee (for the record I don't think they should be fired in any case).

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

#313

Post by tivert »

mysterydip wrote: post #206
permo-w wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> not only has Google given themselves the right to scan your documents You agreed to it: "We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our Program Policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies or the law." https://www.google.com/drive/terms-of-service/?hl=en Their list of policy violations is quite long: https://support.google.com/do…

>> not only has Google given themselves the right to scan your documents

> You agreed to it:

I highly doubt that: "clicking agree" and "agreeing" are two entirely separate things.

Literally no one has the time or ability to read, let alone agree, with the things they're forced to click through* in order to live in the modern world.

Therefore, Google gave themselves the right as the GP claimed.

* either literally by clicking through, or by opening up a box an using a product, or by having something like that silently and unilaterally amended, etc.

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

#314

Post by CodeWriter23 »

Yeri wrote: 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…

> He believes Amazon is becoming less accountable as it grows in power and treats customers worse.

He’s wrong. What’s happening is more people are starting to notice. Ask any long-term Amazon Seller.

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

#315

Post by InvaderFizz »

bombcar wrote: post #245
mihaaly wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Quite often when ordering cheap Chinese junk that I can wait a month for, I do use eBay and AliExpress. I'm generally pretty happy. I save quite a bit of money, and the experience is no worse than Amazon 99% of the time.

AliExpress does manage to have a search feature that is massively worse than Amazon's, if you can believe that possible.

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

#316

Post by tanjtanjtanj »

permo-w wrote: post #160
Yeri wrote: 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…

One time a few years back I searched google for the title of a thread on /r/boardgames about a board game called Ethnos. I was instantly unable to use any google services on either of my google accounts that were both signed in. I signed out of my accounts to try again and I got 1 google search to go through before I started receiving the same cryptic message, using anonymous mode didn't help either. I switched over to my phone and I was blocked there as well. I then logged into my work SSO that goes through a work domain google account and that worked for a few minutes before also getting blocked.

I couldn't find a way to contest or ask about the issue so I reached out to a contact at google who sent me a link where I found out that the issue wasn't made in error and will not be rescinded. My work account and all google services blocked forever! Un/Fortunately it was a Friday before a week off of vacation for me and my access was restored a week later right before I returned to work. I know it's a very much first world problem but that week of vacation was the most anxious I've ever felt in my life. My contact told me that it was likely set off by their automatic "human trafficking" detection.

Every few months since then I'll wake up and get one of the same messages and I'll freak out for a little before it fixes itself an hour or so later. I don't like having my account tagged in this way.

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

#317

Post by optimalsolver »

lom888 wrote: post #296
optimalsolver wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In your opinion, do they have to say a racism or merely think it to be worthy of being locked out of their home?

Hmmm. Tough one. I think making certain expressions in the presence of black people should be enough to qualify.

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

#318

Post by hedora »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #94
shermozle wrote: post #34

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?

Google has a higher (perceived) quality audience.

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

#319

Post by throwawaymedia »

"racist trees", "racist doorbell", "racist photos"... my god, when will all this nonsense stop? When will the mass media stop feeding people with that crap? As a lesson, every single news company that writes about racism more than twice a year must be canceled from all the platforms out there. This shit is out of control and has damaged many people's brains. Or is that coming from politicians who love the "Divide & Conquer" principle?

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

#320

Post by mikewarot »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #280
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.

Sure but the T&Cs are written such that even the .1% makes him subject to termination and that's kind of the point. If you write the rules (or laws) such that everyone is breaking them but then chose when and how to enforce those laws you can selectively enforce them against specific people or specific kinds of people. You're terminating him for a totally legitimate not-at-all-dystopian reason when obviously the real…

>Sure but the T&Cs are written such that even the .1% makes him subject to termination and that's kind of the point.

In response to this type of behavior over time, we internet "power users" have developed a superpower, something we do better than almost anyone else

We hold a grudge forever,

and, we happen to be good about telling others

This routes around their damage

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