Amazon Rethinks Purchase Circles

Dredd13 writes "Amazon.Com announced today that they are rethinking their position on Purchase Circles. They are going to permit people to remove their purchases from being added to Purchase Circles, as well as allowing companies to opt-out of the Purchase Circle listings. Personally, I think that it should be explicitly opt-in for companies, because it is far too easy for a company to have its secrets unknowingly leaked to the world via its book purchases. If a precedent is set allowing Amazon.Com to do this, then before a company allows purchases from an online retailer, they may have to spend time and energy researching the company making sure silly things like Purchase Circles don't affect them. " Opt-out sure is an interesting choice. I know one of my old employers is actually quite upset by the whole idea of purchase circles.

Comments

Spamazon has always been opt-out

[Tackhead]

> Opt-out sure is an interesting choice.

I've refused to shop at Spamazon for quite some time due to their penchant for spamming. Cases in point go back at least as far as early 1998 and are widely documented on Dejanews.

A better write-up of their business practices can be found at the page of Peter Seebach, a long-time n.a.n-a.e (news.admin.net-abuse.email) regular.

Finally, there's Spamazon's practice of shilling for themselves on USENET - an "astroturf" campaign eerily reminiscient of Micros~1's "independently-written letters to the editor" stunt. (Available through Dejanews - Start here or search for Message-ID <3584e5cc.1368345@news.sirius.com>.

While I'm as disgusted at the "purchase circles" idea as anyone, I'm not at all surprised. Spamazon doesn't think in terms of customers; merely in terms of targets for additional marketing. Take your business elsewhere. (Many on n.a.n-a.e have recommended Powell's. I concur.)

I do

[dirty]

Actually corporations have the exact same rights. Corporations are basically considered a person. Companies also need some degree of privacy. Let's say company X has delt with Microsoft exclusively for years, they are getting tired of being controlled by microsoft and see linux as a way out of that controll. Company X starts buying a lot of linux books from amazon.com, Microsoft, being the evil empire that it is, regularly checks up on what books it's "partners" (read slaves) are buying. Microsoft notices that company X is buying said linux books, microsoft knows that company x might be thinking of some sneaky way to get away from them. microsoft in some way manages to crush company x before they have a chance to impliment their "linux liberation plan." In short, companies need privacy too.