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'I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible.' (gizmodo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Kashmir Hill, a reporter at Gizmodo, spent weeks trying to avoid and block Amazon -- and every service that is owned by Amazon or uses Amazon's web services (AWS). She went to great lengths such as getting her own custom-built VPN. Turns out, it is impossible to keep Amazon off your life. An excerpt from the report: Launched in 2006, AWS has taken over vast swaths of the internet. My VPN winds up blocking over 23 million IP addresses controlled by Amazon, resulting in various unexpected casualties, from Motherboard and Fortune to the U.S. Government Accountability Office's website. (Government agencies love AWS, which is likely why Amazon, soon to be a corporate Cerberus with three "headquarters," chose Arlington, Virginia, in the D.C. suburbs, as one of them.) Many of the smartphone apps I rely on also stop working during the block.

5 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Antitrust concerns by footNipple · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting article. Any US company that is so omnipresent in the lives of its customers and has an active corporate policy to crush or, at least, impede competition does indeed warrant a good look by the US Treasury Department. And I'm not a big government, anti-capitalist kind of guy by any stretch of the imagination.

  2. Re:If you think that was hard... by poet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you remove Linux you can not:

    Run an Android phone
    Use In-Flight Entertainment
    Use the Internet AT ALL
    No Netflix
    No Prime
    If you drive a Dodge/Chrysler you can't start your car

    The list just goes on and on.

    --
    Get your PostgreSQL here: http://www.commandprompt.com/
  3. I don't think she tried hard enough. by bob4u2c · · Score: 5, Informative

    If she really wanted to be cut off from Amazon, or any company for that matter, its pretty simple. Buy a log cabin in the woods with no power, no internet, cell connectivity, at least 30 miles away from any neighbor. Then Amazon will completely disappear from your life. Of course this presents other problems.

    Seriously why are you trying so hard to block one company or anything they touch? Afraid you'll get cooties? You want all the modern amenities there are things you'll just have to accept. I'm not saying to swallow the Kool-Aid and just go with it, just realize that at some point you are doing business with a company you may not agree with. You can minimize your contact, but you can't really prevent it. Well, I guess there is that log cabin option, but I'm betting thats not an option for you either.

    1. Re:I don't think she tried hard enough. by Aristos+Mazer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The point of cutting off the beast is to learn how far the tentacles reach.

  4. It was easy. by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A few summers ago I was able to block Google, Amazon, and Netflix for life for just about two week. I left the phone on the counter, no service where I was going. Put the tent, the sleeping back, and supplies in the back of the car. Pointed North and drove off for some hiking and camping.

    Technology doesn't have to enslaved you if you don't want it too. It's just another tool.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.