New Super-sized Customer Database for Amazon?

Slashdot ^ | Aug 12, 2006 | Posted by CowboyNeal

[theBuckwheat]

dtjohnson writes "Amazon.com has applied for a patent to create an online customer database which would allegedly contain 'massive amounts of intimate information about its millions of shoppers, including their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and income.'

From the article: "The database, which would combine information disclosed voluntarily by customers with facts gleaned from public databases, conceivably would give Amazon a larger or more detailed profile of its customers than any other retailer. Does this cross the privacy line or is it just reasonable data gathering to make retail sales more responsive to customer needs?"

[theBuckwheat]

The only way to protect your privacy is to refuse to give out anything but the bare minimum of info and only then when necessary.

[glorgau]

If you say something in public feel ready to have it printed on the front page of your local newspaper.

And don't forget the adage from Ben Franklin - "Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

[AZLiberty]

Why don't they just buy it from Google, Inc.? Google already knows everything about me.

[JamesP81]

I'm beginning to wonder more and more how feasible an online e-tail business that, as one of its selling points, refused to collect any personal information about its customer would be.

[SamAdams76]

I'd better be careful about disclosing information about myself to Amazon.com or they might find out that I'm a middle-aged white male with a higher than average annual income. They may also find out that I like to listen to Outlaw Country music, read a lot of books about history and occasionally buy computer compents. This kind of information must not get out!

[KarlInOhio]

I'm beginning to get the feeling that all of these databases should be "poisoned" with false data. It might be a privacy duty like lying to pollsters is to claim that you are a Zoroastrian midget who is interested in cross stitch and Cambodian rodeo.

If they can't separate the wheat from the chaff they might just give up.

[peyton randolph]

The one thing that Amazon doesn't have that Wal-Mart is creating is a facial recognition database to track purchases (smile for that 'security' camera). Wal-Mart just built a huge database center in southern Missouri that supposedly has more consumer info than any other company.

[Salgak]

.. . or lie.

I tell surveys that we're unemployed black lesbians making in excess of 250K/year. . .

[ProtectOurFreedom]

... or lie. Yep, I'm usually a CEO born in 1901 who makes <$15,000 per year.

[worst-case scenario]

Wasn't there something like that in "Minority Report"?

[peyton randolph]

Wasn't there something like that in "Minority Report"?

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Believe so. In this case, Wal-Mart has apparently tweaked and improved the facial recognition software tested at the SuperBowl for identifying potential terrorists. Buy with your Visa card one day. Buy something else with cash another day. The software will identify you during the cash purchase and add it to your profile.

[peyton randolph]

I'm usually a CEO born in 1901 who makes <$15,000 per year.

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If zip code is requested, I use 19255...Philly zip code for IRS returns.