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Amazon Patents User Viewing Histories
Chris Cleveland writes "Yet another astounding patent from the USPTO. I was browsing the patent database, and discovered that Amazon received a patent today on using customer viewing histories to generate recommendations. If a customer views product A, and then later views product B, and you use that to infer a relationship between A and B, then you've infringed on this patent. This patent is a continuation of an earlier patent (#6,317,722) on using shopping carts to generate recommendations. When will this stupidity end?"
The worst part would be if the government gets your purchase history under the Patriot Act, they could use Amazon's recommendation to figure out what stuff you could've ordered. So if you're flag-burning, violence-reading, sex-watching, WMB-building subversive, your past and future has already been determined by Amazon. The government only has to decide in the present when to send you to Gitmo.
You're preaching to the wrong crowd. This is Slashdot where even the greatest inventions are considered unworthy for patent protection. It upsets the apple cart for programmers to think about patents.
How we know is more important than what we know.