My Amazon Data Request

OldShooter

OldShooter

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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With the debate on Amazon's accumulating data on customers, including evesdropping via Alexa, I decided to get a look at what they had on me.

The instructions I found were:
Go to Request My Data.
Select the data you want to receive.
Click Submit Request when you're done.
Click the validation link in your confirmation email.
​
So I did the dance and it went smoothly. After I replied to the validation link this is what I got (emphasis mine):

We’ve received and are processing your request to access your personal data.

We will provide your information to you as soon as we can. Usually, this should not take more than a month. In exceptional cases, for example if a request is more complex or if we are processing a high volume of requests, it might take longer, but if so we will notify you that there will be a delay.
​
A month! I can get one-day shipping when they want my money but when I want something they are trying to hide, I get slow-rolled.

My opinion of Amazon dropped like a rock when I saw this.

[\rant]
 
Wow. Do they give you an option to remove any data? I assume not?
 
badatmath said:
Wow. Do they give you an option to remove any data? I assume not?
Click to expand...
I think this is the article that triggered me: https://www.reuters.com/technology/look-intimate-details-amazon-knows-about-us-2021-11-19/ It says:
The only way for customers to delete much of this personal data is to close their account, Amazon said. The company said it retains some information, such as purchase history, after account closure to comply with legal obligations.


​
I'll try to remember to report back after my data arrives ... in a month.
 
OP here with an update: The info arrived last night, so about a week. Not bad, really.

What I got was links to about 75 little zip files with names like "Retail.OutboundNotifications.zip" and "OutboundNotifications.EmailDeliveryStatusFeedback.zip" Forcing the customer to do 75 separate downloads is pretty hostile IMO.

One interesting snippet:

Demographics:Education:High School Demographics:Male Demographics:Married Demographics:No Children in household Demographics:Occupation:Retired Demographics:Renters

Not 100% accurate but not really intrusive or alarming either. I was in high school once and I did rent at one time.

I don't click ads much and don’t read on Kindle much, so those datasets are brief and dull. If I were an extensive reader of political material, though, I would be unhappy that my reading was being tracked.

One interesting-looking file: Retail.SportsFanExperience.zip revealed only one entry where I apparently had clicked a button indicating that I was NOT interested in a particular sports team.

Bottom Line for me was that I am fairly pleased that they have so little information. I try to keep a low profile with AdBlock, Ghostery, and not revealing personal information willingly. It seems to be working, but I can see where an avid shopper with an Alexa spy-bot and unusual reading interests could find their file to be upsetting.
 
Well now I am going to have to ask for mine I think! They have a ton of information on my reading habits anyway.
 
Last edited:
I’ve never given much thought to this. What is the concern of them tracking information about you that Is used to personalize your shopping experience?

I think I’d prefer they know what I like so I get relevant recommendations as have faster shopping times. What’s the flip side of that argument?
 
My question is, once you find out what they know about you, what are you going to do about it? My guess is, nothing.

Have you ever gone to your Amazon page and clicked on "Orders"?

You'll find everything you ever ordered from them listed there.
My orders go back to 1996 (I ordered a book that I still have), and although some of the early items are now missing, they at least show how many orders I placed each year.

Honestly, I don't care. Having my past orders available there has been a great convenience occasionally, and I'm well able to resist any of their targeted marketing suggestions.
 
The author of the article I read that triggered me to inquire found transcribed Alexa inquiries from his kids about sex, about how to get their parents to buy certain things, and records of when and where he read his Kindle Koran. See link in post #3.

Helping me shop, fine. Using searches and other activities to develop my religious profile, political profile, a health profile, personally identifiable data, etc., not fine. Selling my data to other companies, not fine. Aggregating data like this from multiple sources, including biometrics, is demonstrably leading to a Brave New World. Watch the Chinese in Xinjiang to see how oppressive this can become. Europe is far ahead of the US in regulating the use of personal data, as is California.
 
OldShooter said:
The author of the article I read that triggered me to inquire found transcribed Alexa inquiries from his kids about sex, about how to get their parents to buy certain things, and records of when and where he read his Kindle Koran. See link in post #3.

Helping me shop, fine. Using searches and other activities to develop my religious profile, political profile, a health profile, personally identifiable data, etc., not fine. Selling my data to other companies, not fine. Aggregating data like this from multiple sources, including biometrics, is demonstrably leading to a Brave New World. Watch the Chinese in Xinjiang to see how oppressive this can become. Europe is far ahead of the US in regulating the use of personal data, as is California.
Click to expand...


Thanks.

What personally identifiable info do you think they’re gleaning that you didn’t freely give them or can’t be implied through your shopping habits?

We give them our name, address, phone number and email. Yes buy dog food every three months. It’s not hard to assume I have a dog. I guess I’m not too concerned about someone connecting the dots on info that’s out there.
 
Well, this just reinforces my desire to Not have alexa or dot or any of those type of things in my house. I am not a big FB fan either, but that is, unfortunately, the only way I can connect with some relatives.
 
I just bought a new Kindle, which has Alexa built in. I don't need or want it, any more than I want a Wi-Fi enabled kitchen faucet. Can I turn it off?
 
An interesting project for sure. Request data, find way to download 75 files automatically, combine all the data, give it to Google...Lol.

Amethyst, I looked at this on a new Fire earlier this year. Alexa was not enabled, and I think that was because we've never used it, or don't have a dot. That doesn't answer your question, I know.
 
I've given up on anonymity, the cost would be to high (use cash for all transactions possible, do not use any internet connected devices) and even then, my info would be captured as organizations I do businesses with input some into their own systems. My important info is already out there thanks to OPM and other breaches over the years.



Amazon doesn't scare me and I enjoy using my Alexa and smart home devices. Google does some, more due to their ubiquity in search results and ability to influence public opinion/discussion -it's a scary power for any entity to have.



Targeted marketing doesn't bother me... and amusingly to me, usually lags my interest/purchase after I'm out of the market. I'd rather get relevant ads than shotgunned random stuff.... rarely click though I sometimes will click through if I'm legitimately interested and on a site I want to support (however slight by improving their click-through).



If I was too worried about privacy I wouldn't be here either. DuckDuckGo's privacy essentials gives retireearly.org a "D" and counts over 1000 "trackers" when looking as I type this. I never clicked to look before, interesting to see the list of sites tracking me here (yes, google, facebook, but also yahoo, oracle, and a bunch of analytics and advertising entities I've never heard of.)
 
OldShooter said:
Helping me shop, fine. Using searches and other activities to develop my religious profile, political profile, a health profile, personally identifiable data, etc., not fine. Selling my data to other companies, not fine. Aggregating data like this from multiple sources, including biometrics, is demonstrably leading to a Brave New World. Watch the Chinese in Xinjiang to see how oppressive this can become. Europe is far ahead of the US in regulating the use of personal data, as is California.
Click to expand...
+1, exactly. Ad revenue is fine, but monetizing personal data is not IMO. Amazon, Facebook and others may be somewhat careful about who they sell data to, but they have no control over what the second tier does with your personal information- that’s why it’s everywhere online!
While specific numbers are hard to come by, it's estimated that Facebook earns $84 from each of its North American users, and $27 from each of its European users. Of the U.S. and Canadian market, about $81 of that revenue comes from advertising (up from 12% in 2012), leaving approximately 3% in revenue earned from user-based data generation and direct business payments.
Click to expand...
 
Alexa Wiretap.jpg
 
I just updated my Apple OS and Apple now tells you which sites you are tracked from and who accesses the info. This site is #3 on my list and #1 buyer of this data is Google.
 
aja8888 said:
No Apple product here, but I am sure I'm the product on the other devices I own.:facepalm:
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood, the tracking is site related, not hardware related. We are all being tracked and the data sold.
 
I am mostly wondering if Amazon got anything wrong. They give me bizarre suggestions now and then. But so far I got nothing back from the request.
 
Got my data seems to be mostly useless and less than I expected. Of course they have hundreds of records of books and I don't have any alexa devices.
 
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