Amazon To Kill AI Program That Sent Shoppers Free Items Based on Prior Purchases (cnbc.com) 28
Amazon says it will shut down a program that sends shoppers free samples based on what it thinks they want to buy. From a report: The program, which Amazon began testing earlier this year, used machine-learning tools to discern shoppers' buying habits, then sent them free product samples curated to their tastes. Samples included items such as Maybelline mascara, Calvin Klein perfume and Kind bars, among other things. While Amazon likened it to the site's product recommendation tools, the program raised privacy concerns among some consumers who have grown increasingly wary of data mining and targeted advertising across the web. Now, Amazon says it is winding down the program. "Amazon is constantly testing and launching new offerings to innovate on behalf of customers," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. "At this time, we have decided to discontinue the sampling program in 2020."
Privacy My Ass (Score:3)
"Privacy", my ass!
Amazon does NOT care about privacy, and if this program resulted in them earning a single cent more Bezos would be shoving it down our throats.
The simple fact is people took the free samples and used/chucked/sold them, then proceeded to not alter their buying habits in a way that profited Amazon.
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Of course. If privacy was the main issue, they could have solved it by making it an opt-in program.
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Ask any guy standing around on a street corner. This marketing technique works to get totally new customers hooked. But if you try it on existing customers, at best they will switch existing business to a different product without changing the total amount they are spending with you. More likely, you just taught them that they can manipulate you into giving them free stuff.
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Couldn't agree more. Amazon have the VINE programme, reviewers of free products, they could have simply expanded the VINE programme with the AI targetting or created a VINE side-programme to test AI. Amazon know what their reviewers get for free and what they buy so tacking in the AI code wouldn't have been hard to do.
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Think you (and folks responding to you) might be missing a point there.
Just because they close the program doesn't mean Amazon also ditched the information. Assuming that Amazon itself did the mailing of samples, no privacy gain is had by this action. And if they farmed out the mailing, only a minimal privacy gain is achieved.
I grant Amazon permission to send me free stuff (Score:1)
Damn... (Score:1)
Turns out skynet wasn't so bad after all (Score:3)
Looks like movies all portrayed skynet as some evil force wanting to kill all humans, instead it was just a really nice Secret Santa!
Boo to you AI haters! Boo I say!
Re:Turns out skynet wasn't so bad after all (Score:5, Interesting)
Full disclosure: I work at Amazon, although nothing to do with the retail part.
One of the interesting things about working at a company that is making more money than it can possibly spend is that "Failure is an option". During the new hire orientation there is always a random long-time Amazonian who talks to the group at some point. Our speaker started out by saying, "I run a division that I invented which is currently losing $6 million per week, and has been for three months. If it doesn't turn around in the next few months we'll shut the program down, but the failure will not affect my standing in the company or my future here." Internally Amazon is all about taking risks (where appropriate, of course) and doing things that no one else in the world is doing, in full knowledge that a lot of them won't succeed. It's fascinating to watch from the inside. (The division was eventually shut down, the speaker is now running one some other division and doing very well with it.)
Winding down (Score:2)
I think we all know the real answer to this one.
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They're already doing the tracking in order to show you other stuff to buy on the website. This was just getting other companies to contribute samples to mail out to people Amazon had identified.
It is a bit creepy (Score:2)
...if the Amazon truck delivered complimentary prenatal vitamins before you know you're pregnant.
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You mean like it has actually happened (to the father of a daughter who was pregnant)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/k... [forbes.com]
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Exactly!
Don't worry, scammers will fill in. (Score:1)
If you're "fortunate" enough that dodgy Amazon sellers can find your name and address, they can easily create a new account as "you," then order one of their items for delivery to the real you, wait a few weeks and write a glowing review from the fake you.
So far, my wife's gotten about five packages from them. 20% total WTF, 40% stuff that we might find a use for if we really try, and 40% stuff that we call relatives and ask whether somebody sent one of the kids a late birthday present without any identify
I want some (Score:2)
Worried about the Wrong Thing (Score:3)
People are getting upset about this, which is just Amazon comparing what people bought and what's on their wish lists. It's something that they already do in order to display the other products when you are browsing.
If people want to get upset at Amazon for invading their privacy then they can get upset about the Nest doorbells. I don't believe that Amazon is selling doorbells for $90 and a few bucks a month to store video on their servers just so they can give video clips to the police. There has to be something bigger for them to make money with. Doorbells aren't going to be upgraded very often, if ever, so the market for selling the hardware will slow down. The monthly fees aren't much to Amazon. So what are they doing with all of that video on their servers? I'm guessing that they are building up patterns on peoples behaviours. The more doorbells there are the more detailed they can get. My neighbour has one so it picks me up when I'm leaving and coming back. It does this for the people across the street too. It can pick up who is visiting. There is a lot of information that it can gather and get added to everything else that Amazon has on everyone. Data is the most important thing today and Amazon is gathering huge amounts with their doorbell cameras.
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People are getting upset about this, which is just Amazon comparing what people bought and what's on their wish lists. It's something that they already do in order to display the other products when you are browsing.
That's an overly kind description. They're trying to get you hooked on high-margin products by handing out free samples, there's a difference between finding relevant products for you and pushing specific brands. I'm pretty sure this is the latter.
Privacy (Score:2)
Does anyone actually think this changes privacy at all? They didn't say anything about not collecting or using the data any more, they're just not going to send out free stuff now. The people complaining about this were in effect telling Amazon that we don't mind if you collect, store, and analyze all the data you can, just please don't send us free stuff based on that data.