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Amazon Granted a Patent That Prevents In-Store Shoppers From Online Price Checking (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Amazon's long been a go-to for people to online price compare while shopping at brick-and-mortars. Now, a new patent granted to the company could prevent people from doing just that inside Amazon's own stores. The patent, titled "Physical Store Online Shopping Control," details a mechanism where a retailer can intercept network requests like URLs and search terms that happen on its in-store Wi-Fi, then act upon them in various ways. The document details in great length how a retailer like Amazon would use this information to its benefit. If, for example, the retailer sees you're trying to access a competitor's website to price check an item, it could compare the requested content to what's offered in-store and then send price comparison information or a coupon to your browser instead. Or it could suggest a complementary item, or even block content outright. Amazon's patent also lets the retailer know your physical whereabouts, saying, "the location may be triangulated utilizing information received from a multitude of wireless access points." The retailer can then use this information to try and upsell you on items in your immediate area or direct a sales representative to your location.
Amazon Granted a Patent That Prevents In-Store Shoppers From Online Price Checking
Amazon is not supposed to be able to grant patents. Only the USPTO does that in the USA. Care to explain, you STUPID MILLENIAL BeauHD?
The only explanation required is that you must have left your reading comprehension in your other pants.