Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#11

Post by kube-system »

empedocles wrote: post #6
potatosalad1 wrote: post #4

The addresses are whole foods stores

Still provides a good faith reason why an Amazon employee might see this and think "I need to apply the company policy on PII here" rather than a nefarious "you are making us look bad"

I think that's obviously what is going on. This is a boots-on-the-ground employee tasked mostly with responding with pre-determined answers to people angry about their orders. Of which, a number undoubtably treat their posts like PMs. This isn't someone who is tasked with any sort of decision making regarding data privacy.

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#12

Post by judge2020 »

dastbe wrote: post #9

I used to work at Amazon, but even then it's pretty clear the support person is erring on the side of caution here. in isolation two grocery store addresses and orders isn't particularly illuminating, but tying it with their real name it suddenly provides information on where they've been in past few years that might not otherwise have. and what if their order history accidentally contained something embarassing? i t…

Exactly. In this case, it's meant to showcase how much data Amazon has on people, but I imagine their support handle (@amazonhelp) gets hundreds of requests a day that have things like full home addresses in the screenshot, and their support wants to inform people about the risks of having that be publicly tied to their online identity.

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#14

Post by dewey »

That's a clickbait headline. It is clearly a support person that sees a list of addresses that could include the address of the user and uses their macro to tell the user to delete the tweet. Just like they would do if someone posts their password, date of birth or credit card information.

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#15

Post by pnathan »

If you log into a loyalty account for a Kroger store (QFC, Fred Meyer, others)... you see similar transaction lists. This is extremely normal for retailers.

Also, machine learning can create shadow profiles for people, even those who don't have a loyalty account. (E.g., a purchase occurs every Friday around 5:30 and buys a specific beer and specific brats...).

This is all obvious stuff to me, but, also, people might not be aware that every interaction - touchpoint - on a big enterprise is recorded.

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#16

Post by xanaxagoras »

pnathan wrote: post #15

If you log into a loyalty account for a Kroger store (QFC, Fred Meyer, others)... you see similar transaction lists. This is extremely normal for retailers. Also, machine learning can create shadow profiles for people, even those who don't have a loyalty account. (E.g., a purchase occurs every Friday around 5:30 and buys a specific beer and specific brats...). This is all obvious stuff to me, but, also, people might…

Does paying in cash "protect" me from these shadow profiles?

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#17

Post by sudhirj »

xanaxagoras wrote: post #16
pnathan wrote: post #15

If you log into a loyalty account for a Kroger store (QFC, Fred Meyer, others)... you see similar transaction lists. This is extremely normal for retailers. Also, machine learning can create shadow profiles for people, even those who don't have a loyalty account. (E.g., a purchase occurs every Friday around 5:30 and buys a specific beer and specific brats...). This is all obvious stuff to me, but, also, people might…

Does paying in cash "protect" me from these shadow profiles?

Not entirely. Think stores are still free to use any signals available at their own premises, like camera footage, license plate numbers in their parking lot, Wifi Mac addresses, or even gait analysis if they feel like it :-/

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#18

Post by Accacin »

So I hate my data being collected like this, and try to reduce when it happens whenever I can. But, buying an Alexa and then complaining they store the audio? When they confirmed they kept it about two years ago?

Imagine I found out the library kept a list of titles I borrowed! Or my bank account storing my transactions.

Re: Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect

#20

Post by iso1631 »

Accacin wrote: post #18

So I hate my data being collected like this, and try to reduce when it happens whenever I can. But, buying an Alexa and then complaining they store the audio? When they confirmed they kept it about two years ago? Imagine I found out the library kept a list of titles I borrowed! Or my bank account storing my transactions.

These were recordings from years ago. Why are amazon keeping it that long?
Post reply on HN