Slashdot Mirror
Online Purchases Can Give You Away
Abhishek writes "New Scientist reports that Retailers could guess your age, sex, birthday and wedding anniversary simply from the types of gifts purchased for you online and their timing, according to a patent granted to online retail giant, Amazon.
The information could be used to remind your loved ones of an impending special occasion and offer gift suggestions.
Currently Amazon makes personalised suggestions to customers based on previous purchases by that customer, previous web pages browsed and comparisons between customers who have bought similar products. But the company may vastly increase its predictive capability in the future."
Demographics can be reversed!
The patent describes software that automatically guesses when a gift is being purchased by extracting key words such as "birthday" or "anniversary" from an attached message. It might also note details such as the fact that the buyer has asked it to be gift wrapped or that the recipient address is different from the purchaser address, according to the patent, which was granted on 8 March.
And people screamed over Google's ads with Gmail.
Most worrying is that the patent appears to target children, says Karen Coyle of the public interest alliance Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility in Berkeley, California.
Isn't their a law regarding this? Something about consent from a parent if the child is 13 or younger?
According to Amazon spokesperson Patty Smith, based in Seattle, Washington, these worries are "a little premature and a bit speculative". She adds that the company has no plans to implement the technology at present.
For now.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
... that if it's from a man it's probably being given/ordered late?
Stop buying me those Barbra Streisand DVDs for God's sake!
Amazon.com: "It's time to purchase Rocco's true anal stories 29!"
Wife: "WTF?"
OH MY GOD!! They can find out my BIRTHDAY!! My ANNIVERSARY!! I demand PRIVACY!! Boycot RETAILERS!!
This just in: you're not important enough for anyone to give a rat's ass about you.
All you have to do is buy 'inappropriate' gifts for your friends and it'll keep suggesting more of them!
Your purchases of:
1. Childrens clothing (young female)
2. Childrens Videos (Mecha fighting robots IV)
3. 'Fairy' Wand
4. 'Young Princess' wings and headband.
Indicate that you are a 40yr old Male, Single... probably naked right now...
This has got to be the most bizarre attempt at trolling ever.
I wonder if the potential benefits would outway the possible embarrassments - I can think of lots of cases where a wrong guess could alienate customers, from reminding you to purchase a birthday gift for a loved one who has passed on to assuming someone is older than they really are. I wonder how good the software is and how subtly their guesses will be manifested to the customer.
welcome back fred,
from your [and your wife's] recent purchases we think you may like the following recommendations:
Marriage on the Rocks [Book]
Cheaters [DVD]
Safeway has been doing this for years. Some friends of ours got a card in the mail shortly after they had a baby, congratulating them on their new addition, and offering them these fine baby products, available at Safeway. A year later they got a "happy birthday" card for the baby with some coupons and such.
Do not read this sig.
I hope they make this service optional.
... Or just ask them. As long as retailers don't ask for my social security number or other vital information, I don't mind giving up my gender, zip code, or whatever.
/.ers visited Amazon and said "Hey, I'm a [computer|history|physics] geek" then I'm sure Amazon of all people would go: "Hey, let's pitch him SnowClash, Digital Fortress, or tech books."
I know the power of data collection, and how it can influence markets. If a bunch of
I personally don't want my potential anniversary date posted online (I have a female compatriot, just happen to be 17), but hell, if Amazon is willing to say "Hey numnuts, your anniversary is in a week. You better get her something!" then I'd be glad.
--
Help a poor high-schooler?
Combine this with Geo-Targeting and it's amazing to know what web sites can find out about you without your consent.
It's like an involuntary a/s/l check from web sites you visit.
I'm a big tall mofo.
And in the US you have no data protection rights. California's laws are advanced for f***'s sake!
Some people give away the information voluntarily like in a wedding or baby registry.
make a post:
1 19 47566
/. the next day!
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=142544&cid=
and see a story appear on
If someone buys a casket for you, will they stop spamming you ?
What keeps me going is my inertia.
Why doesn't Amazon just create a new service where user can enter the birthday and anniversaries of their loved one. I'm sure people who always forget important date will use it. You could also extends that to make suggestion based on past gift purchased for those people. My point is why do they want to do this the sneaky way when you can simply ask user for it.
I, for one, welcome a new endless flood of redundant jokes.
vicious, untreated political sewage...niche entertainment for the spiritually unattractive...worshipless pap
Sadly, TFA does not talk about accuracy of this very much. There is one blip at the end that talks about a function not dealing with Amazon at all. I "can guess" the age of everyone who reads this post, how right I will be is another story.
I think a stranger guessing your age, sex, etc based on what others purchased for you and then acting on it can be pretty insulting. I don't see this fake patent having much value.
The patent describes software that automatically guesses ...
I got birthdaycards from several companies who also guessed my birthday by looking in the database. Also some emails from companies that did the same.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
What demographic group does that put me in, other than being a typical /.er?
Visualize Whirled P.'s
Well, I guess they *could* infer all sorts of things. However. it's nothing like the red light cameras they've now got set up on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
I mean, have you ever gotten a picture of yourself running a red light while picking your nose?
Not a thing for a jury trial. Believe me.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Data: I wish to buy a selenium-based epoxy for repairing Spot's dinner plate. Make it quick as I'm in a temporal zone.
Amazon 2501: I'm sorry, I'm not able to profile you. Please fill out these forms so we can get to know you better and allow the purchase to flow quicker (wink wink).
Data: I'm an android. I have no data profile that you can use.
Amazon 2501: Drat.
like least accurately predicted demographic..
women who buy anime?
fat 60 year old male sailormoon fans?
hunter s thompson?
It was scary. Knew your name. Knew whenever you had some extra money. And always offered gift suggestions. "People who purchased the Skunky Buds also recommended: Bathtub Krank, Black Dust, Nembutal."
They dont have me! I don't have a wife or a girlfriend hahahahaha!!!
Haha!
Ha...
ha...
Oh. Dammit. I don't 'any' either.
I want to change demographics now.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
...users are once again the victims of a braindead patent system. Personal information and software are too things that get very ugly real quick when patents get in the way.
Freedom is strength, Ignorance is peace, War is slavery.
1. Buy an expensive gift?
2. Buy a really expensive gift?
3. Spend $50 for the special "have the invoice dated last week" HubbySaver(tm) feature?
4. Cringe in abject terror?
5. Sleep on the couch?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Not only that, but try ordering a gift subscription of "Zoobooks" for someone else's kids. I now get mail for every child's product under the sun. I'm single, and childless, and it's annoying.
However, it's only slightly less annoying than the mailing list I'm on where they've confused me with my Dad, and I get AARP and health care mail all the time.
Put them together, and somewhere, there's a database that thinks I'm a 70 year old that's having tons of kids.
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
Dear short, fat, balding, over-the-hill, poorly-dressed, divorced and lonely couch-potato. We have some wonderful discounts to fit in with your special life-style....
Table-ized A.I.
WHY would they want to know these things?
I make mistakes. Don't we all?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's my anniversary!
If you read the article a little deeper, the general idea is that the software system described is used to guess the purchasing habits of friends and family based on stereotypes derived from information gathered from these messages.
This is no different than someone assuming that if you are some random black guy who happens to like rap music that if you send a message to another friend with the keyword "rap" that it assumes that the recipient of that message must also like rap music.
When marketroids are allowed to segment human beings into every imaginable stereotypical group they can think of, it may be useful for making those advertising dollars a little more efficient, but the cost to society is huge in that people stop sharing similarities as they are encouraged to go retreat to their own little islands of likeminded thinkers.
It is almost like politics in America right now, where pollsters and political pundits have managed to reprogram much of the American electorate into foolishly believing that they are part of some narrowly defined group like the "religious right", or "extreme left" or that they are a "Reagan Republican" or a "NASCAR Dad".
So, instead of society being encouraged to try to create art, ideas, products, services, government programs, etc. which try to serve the public good in a general way, the only thing you see nowadays is ridiculous levels of customization in everything around us that divide people rather than unite them.
It is like people can now go to whatever news outlet they want whether it be the Communist Broadcasting Service or Fox News not to get an objective view on what goes on around the world, but rather to hear news with a distinct political spin to make themselves feel better about "being right" when it comes to their position on any given issue.
This is just another step in the corporatization of America where people voluntarily give up their freedom and rational minds by being fooled into believing that allowing corporations to create a virtual caste system through modern marketing methods is actually a good thing.
Some friends of ours got a card in the mail shortly after they had a baby
Many doctors & hospitals sell this info to any marketer.
Another common marketer is a 3rd-party picture or video service in the hospital. New parents buy pictures for friends & relatives, not knowing that they're going to be marketed to death. It is even in the fine print of some of these contracts.
A year later they got a "happy birthday" card for the baby with some coupons and such.
I've heard of these cards arriving to parents of a baby who died. That's gotta suck.
In Capitalist America, birthday presnt gives away YOU!
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
About a week ago, out of the blue, I received an ad for some sort of lawn-care product, get a green lawn, that sort of stuff.
Curious.
Um, I just live here, I don't own the property or house or car or anything.
I'm buying Christmas cards tomorrow....
...that'll throw them off my trail...
You can just call up ChoicePoint and get all the data you want.
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
I once bought a music theory book on Amazon. Shortly afterward, it recommended to me, on the basis of that purchase, that I buy the book called "Maestro" (Bob Woodward's book about Alan Greenspan.)
Well, I thought it was funny.
I had a similar experience with HP. Somehow I got subscribed to a newsletter from visiting their website. It was mostly worthless, but I'd scan them every once in a while to keep up with their products and things.
After a time the newsletter was re-vamped, and I got something saying they would now be suggesting articles and things to based on my "preferences". Somehow I remember it was an exciting new HP AI technology they were testing, and HP would be offering it to their business customers.
At first, the suggested articles weren't very "personalized" and wading through a bunch of suggested articles that seemed to have nothing to do with my interests made me want to unsubscribe.
All of a sudden, though, I began getting suggested articles like "Don't you think Linux sucks? Click here to read more" that would actually link to articles on the HP website talking about how Windows had a better ROI or something. Although the articles were real, the "suggestions" that pointed to the articles were obviously computer generated or pieced together from a list of pre-generated phrases.
Needless to say, I've since unsubscribed to this most unhelpful service. I'd like to take this opportunity to give an obligatory "fuck you, Carly".
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/16/2 357221
Does a story count as prior art? Arthur C. Clarke did it with waterbeds and geosynchronous satellites.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
Hehehehehehehehe
Which is why granting a patent on this obvious idea (and the even more obvious let's implement the obvious idea in software) is absurd. I think you really can patent breathing if you are a big enough corporation with lots of money to spend on lawyering. USPTO just doesn't seem to give a damn anymore.
Damn e-commerce ! (shakes fist at the sky)
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
As long as your credit card isn't declined, they'll still be happy. They don't care why you're buying more just as long as they do. Either way the new system is doing it's job (getting the money from yours).
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
This is terrific! In the future, companies won't even ask you to pick a gift for your loved ones, they will just automatically charge your card for an item that the database assumes your loved one wants and just sends it to them. You don't even have to be a part of the process anymore, let alone spend time getting to know your loved ones and what they want. Woohoo!
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I ordered a gift from Victoria's Secret once. Now they send me their catalogues all the time. I really don't mind.
Amazon has always impressed me with their recommendations based on my prior purchases, as well as their 'Others who bought this also bought these' suggestions. I have always felt like it was like having a store clerk along with you that would actually shut up and go away if I tired of them. I personally like this touch, as I sometimes am just impulse shopping and looking for something to read. NetFlix does the same thing, suggestions based on prior viewings and ratings. WHY IS THIS BAD? Answer: it isn't, except to those wacko aholes that seem to object to anything that might somehow 'infringe' on their personal space. I say bullshit. If you don't like it, don't use it, or even better, don't use the site that offends you. Then go get a membership to the ACLU so you can object to EVERYTHING all of the time. If technology is working to make my life easier, I like it. As long as there is an opt-out method somewhere, I find it hard that anyone can object to this sort of stuff. Hell, execs pay big money for personal shoppers that remind them about upcoming events that might require a gift. They love it. Email coming in that says 'HEY STOOPID, IT'S YOUR SISTERS BIRTHDAY! She likes the following stuff... You want it gift wrapped?' This is all good in my opinion.
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
Hah! I'll show them. Little do they know I don't buy anniversary presents!
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I hit their site, bunch of book listings shoved in my face. I noticed a "Why was this recommended?" link above each entry. Based on a record of my past searches, it decided I was "interested". I removed each entry.
1 122946/qid=1111027850/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/102-7806 153-5984110?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Got a generic page, with Harry Potter and..."On Bullshit" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/069
Presumably because of my penchant for fsking with busybody datamining/privacy invading outfits. Pretty clever.
WTF? How is Statistical Data Analysis a patentable process ?
For crying out loud, it's basic mathematics and data mining, not some new inventive device/process.
David de Groot Snr Systems Engineer
My dot-com experience was with a company that administers a loyalty program. We would collect data from all of our partner businesses, and attach them to persons using the credit card numbers.
From there we had simple heuristics to look for paterns (activity at a catering establishment and a purchase at a bridal shop?) and sell these profiles back to partner businesses for targeted advertisement.
Outside of only paying in cash, and never using your legitimate information except where absolutely essential, I can't see much way to avoid it. Way things are going, it'll only get worse unless we enact legislation to prohibit that kind of activity.
Currently Amazon makes personalised suggestions to customers based on previous purchases by that customer, previous web pages browsed and comparisons between customers who have bought similar products.
So when it says, since the purchase of the Linksys 54G Wireless Router, your recommendation is this lovely 4 slot extra-wide toaster, it wasn't being sarcastic, but was actually serious?
I get the craziest recommendations some times, including tons of jewelry and kitchen appliances which I never even visit on the Amazon store. If they screw easy recommendations like that up, I wonder how messed up they'll be guessing my age, sex, birthday, etc...
HD Trailers
I think we're all missing something important, here: It's a patent.
This means that ONLY Amazon is allowed to ruthlessly invade your privacy.
So all you have to do is not shop at Amazon and you'll be safe from the data miners forever!
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
They probably got your info from the phone company. They teleco's sell all the info they have on you to anyone with the bucks. I always get my phone number listed in the name of an imaginary roommate (because it is free versus paying for an unlisted number which is not really all that unlisted) and you would be surprised all the weird stuff my imaginary friends have received in the mail over the years.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Does that company still exist? If so, what is its name?
I've been talking about that kind of CC# based cross-referencing for years, but I've never been able to give people a concrete example. Having the name of one company that actually does that kind of work would be useful, if for no other reason to make people take my point more seriously.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
You are a sucker ;-)
May I interest you in a list of pocket lint? Very cheap at 2000$ an ounce...
Yeah it does. But worrying about that too much isn't worth the sterility that would occur in society. Imagine being too afraid to ask an old buddy you haven't seen in a while "So, how're the wife and kids?" for fear that they died in a plane crash. That level of fear over breaching social etiqutte would almost be like being British.
When he described it in a hospital in "Stranger in a Strange Land"? Heinlein wrote years later (ISTR in "Expanded Universe") that the company that first started making waterbeds sent him one, and he never put it together.
Tag lost or not installed.
For the love of God, Montressor - now they'll find out about me!
I think my grocery store does this too with their 'membership discount card'.
Ever since I quickly went into the store to buy a box of Milkbones(tm) and a box of condoms, I keep getting spammed with ads for farmboys.com and puppybangin.com!
Amazon notices you buy expensive gender-reversed gifts on an annual basis and assumes it's your wedding anniversary... or possibly your mistress's birthday.
Kevin Fox
I think that's why tech people like here at slashdot tend to be anti-technology when everybody else thinks it's great....basicly we're sickos that have already explored where pervasive stuff like this goes...but we're so far out there nobody will listen to us till it's too late. The biggest "oxymoron" I've had in that department was trying to explain why this type of techo-spying is so bad for employers and workers and such to a HR manager who has a religous Phd in administration and was a baptist minister... That showed me that even the brightest most well-intentioned people really don't understand just what they're giving away in the electronic/information era! When even the most scholared religous people don't "get it" how can you expect all the grandmas and grandpas out there to understand that we may have to stop using the internet for "everything" because to make it "safe" requires giving up too much of the personal freedom and responsibility we enshrined in the Constitution. Too many people don't really understand how and why the Constitution was written...it was written by a bunch of left-wing nut jobs...even for their time... but it was that radical thinking that made it stand the test of time...remember the politicans first attemept at the US didn't work!
I can see it now:
"Dear valued customer: Judging by your current online reservations at hotels.com and corresponding purchases at lingere.com, chances are your wife is about to discover yet again one of your torrid affairs! May we suggest purchasing a lovely bouquet of "forgive me" flowers from flowers.com and a stunning heart shaped diamond pendant from jewerly.com?
This is a valuable opportunity to purchase her forgiveness in advance, and save countless nights on the couch! And since this is your fourth affair in as many years, we'd like to extend a frequent customer 10% discount!"
Ahh the Internet... is there nothing it can't do?
The Internet is generally stupid
The problem with Amazon's sugestions is that they don't know which books or cds you bought for yourself and which ones you bought for someone else. For example, I bought my mom a Mary Higgins Clark book last year and now everytime I go to Amazon I get all these recomendations for romance novels.
If it was just me that might work, but for my wife (on the same account) and my son (same account).
Xbox games to mysteries to tech books, usually the time of publication.
Good luck
Vic's totally ROCKS IT.
the models are ATTRACTIVE and don't look like they are pumped full of silicon
you can find things to buy for the GF
they send it to you for free
how can you go wrong?
Quote:
Outside of only paying in cash, and never using your legitimate information except where absolutely essential, I can't see much way to avoid it. Way things are going, it'll only get worse unless we enact legislation to prohibit that kind of activity.
Maybe another way to avoid this if people like you, realised that this sort of activity is wrong, and didn't do it for a job.
I'm sure you'll just say that if you weren't doing it, someone else would. But it has to start somewhere.
Why wait for legislation to stop you from doing something which you know is wrong?
Word
I've found Amazon does often recommend products I'm interested in, but it also seems to frequently recommend things I already own (and that I have check the "I own this" box on). It also seems to push certain products more than others . . . For instance, one day the front page was recommending This Year's Model to me in three different places. I ended up receiving it as a gift from someone some months later, told Amazon I own it, and I still see it on the front page with some regularity.
Google and Amazon join forces to create: Googlezon.
Debby does Dallas 2:30 am
/. user!
3 bags of chips and microwave hamburgers 3:00
this sounds like the profile of a
What's the problem with an store that helps me find what I need, when I need it? So they have a good guess on when my family events are, and what my sex/marital status/etc is. That's it. They have a guess, it may be a good one, it may be an excellent one, but it's just that -a guess- and not hard data.
-Andres.
Amazon makes personalised suggestions to customers based on previous purchases by that customer...the company may vastly increase its predictive capability in the future.
Given Amazon's unerring ability to recommend only books that already own, I imagine this means that they will begin recommending the ones that I have just added to the cart.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
That's nothing... we've been getting diapers in the post intended to *fit* the youngest child of the family who lived in our house before we did. Over the past several years (yes, years), the diaper size has increased to the expected growth rate of that child (doesn't really fit anyone in our current household :) We anticipate that after a certain number of years, we'll not be getting many more of those mailings :)
Yet one more reason not to mindlessly perpetuate the tradition of birthday celebration!
You can run but you can't hide, except, apparently, along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Yahoo is the one I'm already steering clear of. When you start using their free email, they're constantly trying to hook you in to personal ads, financial info, groups, chat, etc. As you get into using all these services they're able to compile a pretty comprehensive dossier on you. No matter what BS you give them when you initially sign up, when you finally pony up with a credit card for enhanced mail, personals, etc., they've gotcha!
What Amazon knows by tracking what books I buy for myself and others pales in comparison.
Hold out for the adult-sized diapers.
I did, and late night coding sessions have never been the same since!
http://tinyurl.com/48ok3 The Schrodinger equation plays the role of Newton's laws and conservation of energy in classical mechanics - i.e., it predicts the future behavior of a dynamic system. It is a wave equation in terms of the wavefunction which predicts analytically and precisely the probability of events or outcome. The detailed outcome is not strictly determined, but given a large number of events, the Schrodinger equation will predict the distribution of results.
I do my absolute best to make sure that my identity is NOT part of most transactions. This includes the grocery store, and anything I buy with cash, which is most items. In fact, just today, I had a little incident at a store where they overcharged me for something. I brought it to the attention of the cashier, and in order to give me a refund (cash, mind you), I had to sign a form with my name and telephone number. Usually I make a fuss about this, but I obliged- except I made sure that both were completely illegible. I also made a huge deal about this at an electronics store when I had to return something that was a total piece of junk. A cash purchase, and they make me sign something. I made it very clear that I wasn't going to sign anything. The CS rep talked to someone, and then they talked to someone, and finally they just let me have my refund.
Most of all, I DO NOT USE PLASTIC. Even with these so-called "loyalty" cards, there are ways to deal with them. I'd actually be kind of pissed if I was geting stuff like this in the mail...it's not like they actually give a damn, and even more important, it's not like I'd WANT them to give a damn. It's none of their business.
This is a YRO if ever I've seen one. And I haven't. Because its a stupid category that should be removed.
Look out!
I wonder if they will pick up a pattern with my online shopping. I usually buy a new blow-up doll and some vaseline just before valentines day.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
The solution to this problem is to block all net traffic to your computer... problem solved!
In related news it is stated that according to the United Retailers Interchange New Estimates (URINE), shop keepers already adopted these types of cunning deductions years ago. One shop keeper in Farton declares: "For instance, when a customer drops in for a bar of soap I can easily deduct that he is likely to be filthy, male, between 20 and 75 and that he really needs a new toupet. Of course, the fact that I know Mr. Johnson and his cheap slut wife from the swingers club me and my Doberman frequent helps a great deal. But you shouldn't underestimate the Sherlock in me."
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Yeah, they patented the idea that examining the text on the card for "birthday" allows their amazingly innovative and advanced software to deduce that the recipient of the card and gift is having a birthday on that day.
Next, they'll patent the english language
Paranoid much?
I suspect this would fall foul on the European data protection laws. If I have no business relationship with (say) Amazon, they have no right to collect my personal information. The fact that someone else buys a thing for me does no give *my* consent to keep info on me, to spam me, or to inform other people about my private life, like anniversaries.
In Murphy We Turst
Before doing this, i think that Amazon could do well to improve their existing recommendations. Where I think they do badly is that if you buy an X, where X is something which there are several brands and/or models but which you are only likely to want one of, they recommend many alternatives which you might have considered when making the initial purchase but do not want now that you have made your purchase.
Example from personal experience include USB SD/CF etc readers and foreign language dictionaries.
I'm shocked.
I will only buy hemp products from hippies for cash in the future.
naaaaah, I think I *will* buy that coolpix 8400 from amazon.
So do I, but the arseholes at BT put my name in the phone book which I told expressly them not to. for one I don't even have a phone at home I only use the line for the Internet.
I hope I can get them fined.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
This is just so weird. As far as I remember, Emile Durkheim theorized how and why it is potentially valid to do this kind of population sampling, stat crunching, and infering a century ago. And in doing so, he was mostly finishing the work that Karl Marx started roughly 50 years before him.
Why on earth should amazon be awarded a patent for reinventing sociology?
My address clearly contains the word "Apt", as in APARTMENT. This does not stop me from getting junk (snail) mail offers to refinance my mortgage.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
Amazon UK's data protection register entry, looks like it just expired too.
Amazon
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Quite, it's the great American way, isn't it? Celebrate lots of things a year, but all of them increasingly commercialised to the point of losing speciality. Everything gets commoditized sooner or later.
~Tim
--
Rushing on down to the circle of the turn
Uh huh.
I live in a condo building (i.e. I own it and have a mortgage). 20 units. So what am I supposed to use for an address?
XXX Mary Lane, Condo 602?
XXX Mary Lane, Unit 602?
Try giving that to an order rep. It goes in the "APARTMENT" field.
Demographics are used for targetted advertising. Film at 11:00.
Can we please stop posting articles that fall into the "Well, Duh!" category?
Canada's Baby Bonus (paid to new 'heads of households') & Old Age Pension (paid to 65+ year olds,) because he had a wife that was half his age.
In his case that database would be entirely accurate.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
So I see a future where people that buy gifts for their side relationships.. and the wife checking the email.. lol
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
Since the bank associated with that address was running MS on at least part of it's visible-from-the-net infrastructure, I tend to figure that their servers or desktop machines got cracked. Though it is possible that an insider sold the address.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
If you politely refuse, they may squawk about their store's policy. However much a part of the policy it may be, it is also illegal to require it and they must offer an alternate method. Sometimes you have to speak to a manager to get it through. Then they'll squawk about their policy before shortly knuckling under and sheepishly admitting that the law requires them to provide and alternative.
If that's a hassle, you can make up a number.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Is this anything worse than having a human salesperson make suggestions?
I once bought a couple shirts with a friend at Nordstroms, and the 60+ year old female clerk explained to us what a 'Crisco Party' was.
next thing you know we will have suggestions to buy christmas items near christmas
I only buy sword fight movies, porn and sf books.
I drank what? -- Socrates
New Scientist reports that Retailers could guess your age, sex, birthday and wedding anniversary simply from the types of gifts purchased for you online
Hell, I could guess your age, sex, birthday and wedding anniversary too.... I may not be right but I COULD guess.
Is there no end to the pseduo science?!?!!?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Has anyone else gotten that Gillette razor with the disposable heads near/around their 18th birthday? I got one. A few years later when my brother turned 18, he got one. These bastard companies are in every facet of our lives! But the joke is on them, I use a Schick razor now! Hahahahah. Wait, did they merge?
How dare you try to make my life easier. I shall sick the dogs on you and all your kin. /me crawls back in hermit hole.
--Somewhere there is a village missing an idiot.
Hyperactive's software, called Hyperactive Bob, is currently slashing waiting times and wastage in US fast food restaurants by predicting with 90% accuracy what food customers will order from the type of car they drive to the store in.
whew; good thing I don't own a car...
Based on my purchases they probably think I'm a 16 year old Japanese school girl. Is it wrong for a 36 year old man to buy Puffy AmiYumi CDs?
Hell, the casinos have all that information on me and more, including:
what tables/machines I prefer at what time of day and day of week
what drinks I prefer
how I like my eggs for breakfast
how often I pee
etc.
Anyone looking at the indvidual receipts is going to come to any of these conclusions:
- You're white trash
- You're a white trash woman
- You're a white trash man covering up a tampon purchase
- All of the above
What do you care? It could be worse--Netflix could think you're gay.I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Last time I checked, Victoria's Secret digitally removed nipples from the photographs. No offense, but there is something disquieting about breasts that really do look like smooth melons.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Actually, Figleaves (UK Underwear online merchant) have had a service like this for a while.
At checkout, there's an option to say "This is a late gift" and FL will put in a "Oops - we screwed up. The purchaser ordered this in time for $significant_date and we weren't organised to dispatch it early enough. We're very, very sorry" type card.
I'm not sure if it even costs anything, but sure as hell gains loyalty from their customers (defined as "the people who spend the money").
Ah, I've just given the game away, haven't I...
The only thing you can accurately describe as "Scotch" is a sticky tape made by 3M. And it's
This is why you need separate Amazon accounts.
"Items you recently viewed:
'Amazing Teen Sluts!'
'Asian Party Girls v12'
'Mein Kampf'
Mr Bush, click here to logout..."
...and probably posting to Slashdot at this very moment.
I really shouldn't have ordered that copy of Lolita from Amazon last week. Sure, I know it's for an English literature class, but I doubt their software will think so.
I'd best clean up the apartment, since the feds will be by soon...
It's been a few years, but wearly in amazon's customer profiling, someone wrote a great piece about how amazon had decided he was a pregnant gay male . . .
hawk
I'm tired of models wearing panty liners to hide their camel toes. I want to see that groove damn it!
For some reason, it seems that the models objected to surgical removal . . .
hawk
I wonder what pigeonhole marketroids would put themselves into? Probably the "Quasi-racist, misanthrope, narcissistic, I'd sell my mom for a buck" demographic.
They don't look like they are pumped full of silicon? Have you seen a real breast before?
All my money went to Nigeria and all I got was this lousy sig. . .
"Hey kid, you look 11, and judging by the fact that you're blowing candles out at a Chuck E Cheese, I will wager your birthday is TODAY!"
:o)
:o)
Isn't that the last thing that Jeffrey Jones said before he got arrested?
"Lock him up and throw away the key!"
I guess so.
This article comes at just the right time for me. I'm at work and this morning I got a notice in the mail about a commercial building up for lease/sale. Couldn't understand why it was send to my office until I remembered that the last real estate investment group meeting I went to, I gave them my work phone #. I'm positive someone did a reverse phone lookup and sent it here to me because of my attending that meeting. Even more so since it didn't include my mailstop that wouldn't be available from Google or the like.
:-)
Sneaky bastards, but clever
I don't buy gifts, and nobody buys me gifts, at least not through Amazon, so I guess this doesn't affect me that much. But from the recommendations I get based on the books or software that I buy or look at sporadically, Amazon probably thinks I'm an entrepreneurial computer programmer who likes to kill people. I'd say that's a pretty accurate guess.