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Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

palant.info

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Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#11

Post by ziddoap »

kevinsundar wrote: post #10

This is clickbait. The authors argument is that the extension has enough privileges to track you, not that it actually does. For example, uBlock Origin has similar privileges but I doubt the author would bat an eye. EDIT: I take back my comment :)

Not only did you miss the point of the article, you must have missed where in these very comments the author replies to someone else who just barely skimmed the article.

I will copy/paste it for you.

"You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privileges to a web service that could do anything and that nobody can inspect.

Note: I’m the author of this article. "

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#12

Post by kevinsundar »

ziddoap wrote: post #11
kevinsundar wrote: post #10

This is clickbait. The authors argument is that the extension has enough privileges to track you, not that it actually does. For example, uBlock Origin has similar privileges but I doubt the author would bat an eye. EDIT: I take back my comment :)

Not only did you miss the point of the article, you must have missed where in these very comments the author replies to someone else who just barely skimmed the article. I will copy/paste it for you. "You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privil…

All right upon closer reading you are correct. I seem to have missed the point of the article. There are some good points that the author brings up.

However I still think the title could be better. There are lots of things that applications "can" do. I put more trust into random applications that run on my system.

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#14

Post by KoftaBob »

palant wrote: post #3
KoftaBob wrote: post #2

"Still, I was astonished to discover that Amazon built the perfect machinery to let them track any Amazon Assistant user or all of them: what they view and for how long, what they search on the web, what accounts they are logged into and more. Amazon could also mess with the web experience at will and for example hijack competitors’ web shops. Amazon Assistant log with a borg eye Image credits: Amazon, nicubunu, Open…

You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privileges to a web service that could do anything and that nobody can inspect. Note: I’m the author of this article.

I stand corrected, I must not have read the article carefully enough my apologies!

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#15

Post by cronix »

ziddoap wrote: post #11
kevinsundar wrote: post #10

This is clickbait. The authors argument is that the extension has enough privileges to track you, not that it actually does. For example, uBlock Origin has similar privileges but I doubt the author would bat an eye. EDIT: I take back my comment :)

Not only did you miss the point of the article, you must have missed where in these very comments the author replies to someone else who just barely skimmed the article. I will copy/paste it for you. "You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privil…

> It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privileges to a web service that could do anything and that nobody can inspect.

Would it be more accurate then to say it potentially lets Amazon track you? Without the word "potentially," or similar, it makes it sound like they are in fact doing it when you just said it "could."

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#16

Post by space_ghost »

drewda wrote: post #13

Wasn't this the shtick of the "toolbar" plugins offered by AOL, Yahoo, and even Google at one point over the years?

My first thought was BonziBuddy: a free "assistant" program that was monetized by capturing and selling your personal data and displaying ads directly.

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#17

Post by ziddoap »

cronix wrote: post #15
ziddoap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only did you miss the point of the article, you must have missed where in these very comments the author replies to someone else who just barely skimmed the article. I will copy/paste it for you. "You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privil…

> It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privileges to a web service that could do anything and that nobody can inspect. Would it be more accurate then to say it potentially lets Amazon track you? Without the word "potentially," or similar, it makes it sound like they are in fact doing it when you just said it "could."

To be clear, I'm not the author so I cannot answer on their behalf.

In my opinion though, "could" is so close to "potentially" in definition that it seems rather pedantic to hinge the entire article and its conclusions on that single choice of word.

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#18

Post by fosefx »

navanchauhan wrote: post #8
antattack wrote: post #5

Seems to me that browser extensions need better access control. Why isn't it possible to restrict it to just amazon.com itself, for example?

I’m not familiar with Chrome/Firefox extensions, but for Safari Web Extensions you can indeed restrict extensions. [0] Edit: Looks like this feature is present in Chrome/Firefox extensions as well but for all these platforms (Safari included I think), this needs to be implemented in the code itself[1] [0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/saf... [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10504239/…

It's at the core of the WebExtensions APIs permissions system:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...

WE are implemented both by Chromium and Firefox (with nuances)

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#19

Post by palant »

antattack wrote: post #5

Seems to me that browser extensions need better access control. Why isn't it possible to restrict it to just amazon.com itself, for example?

Most of its functionality is meant to work on other websites. There is probably little reason to install it for amazon.com only.

Note: I’m the author of this article.

Re: Amazon Assistant lets Amazon track your every move on the web

#20

Post by palant »

cronix wrote: post #15
ziddoap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only did you miss the point of the article, you must have missed where in these very comments the author replies to someone else who just barely skimmed the article. I will copy/paste it for you. "You could also read the article before commenting. It’s one thing when an extension could do something but its code can be inspected to verify that it doesn’t. It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privil…

> It’s an entirely different thing if it delegates its privileges to a web service that could do anything and that nobody can inspect. Would it be more accurate then to say it potentially lets Amazon track you? Without the word "potentially," or similar, it makes it sound like they are in fact doing it when you just said it "could."

If Amazon does track some users of their extension right now, we wouldn’t know. It’s a web service, nobody can tell whether it behaves the same for everyone. It has all the privileges, and I can look into what it does with these privileges in my case, but I cannot tell whether it works the same for you.

Note: I am the author of this article.

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