Define "willing" in this context, though. You, myself and most people on HN have a really good idea of what data we willingly give Amazon, while the average person does not. Is it really an accurate statement that people willingly give them their data when they don't actually know what they're giving?

What data does Amazon have that you haven't given them?

I think you misunderstand the comment the other commenter made - there is a lot of info Amazon has about one that is collected via dark patterns.

Also, Don't they also buy data from 3rd parties to augment what you give them? Like stats of credit card purchases and stuff? Always assuming that all these big players do that.

>Also, Don't they also buy data from 3rd parties to augment what you give them? Like stats of credit card purchases and stuff? Always assuming that all these big players do that.

They do! That's even mentioned in this article.

You're misunderstanding. I will rephrase:

You said that everyone "willingly" gives Amazon their data. The average person does not know what kind of data Amazon collects on them, therefore I am positing that it's not fair to say that they are willingly giving it over.

Do you think that if you asked random people something like...

"Do you think that Amazon stores a list of the items that you have bought from them and the addresses where they sent them"

...the majority would say no?

And if you asked them to tell you every other bit of data Amazon collects on them, do you think they would be able to tell you what all of that is? Because common knowledge within the tech community - and as evidenced in the article we are discussing - make very clear that that's not the only data they gather on you.

The average non-technical person I’ve talked to has posited that Amazon is actively, persistently listening via their Alexa-enabled devices and using that audio to drive recommendations.

This doesn’t seem to deter any of the people who’ve mentioned it from purchasing and plugging in Alexa-enabled devices, or from shopping on Amazon.

I don’t think you’re giving non-technical people enough credit. They may not know the exact mechanisms, but they’re generally aware that companies are monitoring their activity and using it to market to them; it’s just not a big deal to them.

Well shoot, I've never thought of it that way. I guess it's perfectly reasonable that they've extrapolated my behavior out so they know when to raise the price of items I intend to purchase. Yep, not underhanded at all.

There still is no viable sarcasm tag for plain text that everyone will pick up :)