Into a hundred thousand million pieces.
Back in 2015, a woman named Imy Santiago wrote an Amazon review of a novel that she had read and liked. Amazon immediately took the review down and told Santiago she had “violated its policies.” Santiago re-read her review, didn’t see anything objectionable about it, so she tried to post it again. “You’re not eligible to review this product,” an Amazon prompt informed her.
When she wrote to Amazon about it, the company told her that her “account activity indicates you know the author personally.” Santiago did not know the author, so she wrote an angry email to Amazon and blogged about Amazon’s “big brother” surveillance.
I reached out to both Santiago and Amazon at the time to try to figure out what the hell happened here. Santiago, who is an indie book writer herself, told me that she’d been in the same ballroom with the author in New York a few months before at a book signing event, but had not talked to her, and that she had followed the author on Twitter and Facebook after reading her books. Santiago had never connected her Facebook account to Amazon, she said.
Update.
Facebook admits that it allowed Netflix and Spotify to access your private messages
I wasn’t sure whether this latest info meant Amazon and others were simply gathering data at a high level to use on a macro scale, this sounds like they are indeed collecting the information at the individual level. Glad I ditched Facebook in 2010 after 2 years of barely looking at it.
well Greg, not to scare you, butt fakebook is still harvesting your info today. And could be even if you never had a fakebook account. And they could be harvesting your info off SDA. Just sayin! I know from personal experience that they do this, AND sell that info to entities like car insurance companies.
Never once gave more than a millisecond’s thought to signing up for Facebook. My schadenfreude over its recent troubles is off the charts.
Honestly, with the extremely rampant amount of fake/shill reviews on Amazon (and other sites) I’m perfectly fine with a handful of people getting erroneously blocked from writing reviews if it results in a significant reduction in fraud reviews. I mean really how much is your quality of life lowered by having one Amazon book review deleted?
On the other hand, the fact that Amazon knew her location history with such precision is absolutely horrifying. We need to implement strict laws regarding the use of user data or privacy truly will be a thing of the past.
Law should impose upon Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc., identity and address details of all employees must be available to every person for whom their employer creates any record.
Was in the US a few weeks ago. Friend was using Waze on his phone. He is NOT on ANY social media.
We passed a Jack in the Box, and having never tried it, said (out loud, i.e., phone was listening) that we should try it.
That night, got to our rented condo, got on my tablet…first ad was for…Jack in the Box.
Spooky, and now its only about a .01% chance its a coincidence.
This type of experience with my buddy is what prompted me to test and subsequently disable my Android FB app. Android permissions give developers access to “Device storage”, “Photos”, “Microphone”, “Contacts”, “Location”, which is pretty much carte blanche to spy on you. It just depends how much of that one is willing to risk for one’s app fetish or for convenience.
I once loaded the FB app on my phone. It was so invasive, and no amount of tweaking the configuration would change that, that it was deleted within an hour. FB are evil. A level of evil that Google can only aspire to.
Google wrote the operating system, plus a good portion of the included apps. They could be doing pretty much anything, and doing it invisibly to the user. Whatever people suspect Huawei of doing, Google likely did it first. FB wishes they could achieve that level of evil. On an Android device, they’re the junior evil.
Have an account with Royal Bank of Canada? and a Facebook / Twitter / Amazon account?
https://business.financialpost.com/technology/rbc-denies-having-ability-to-see-users-facebook-messages-after-nyt-report
“it’s probably nothing”
Just message all your friends telling them that all your bills are paid, you’re completely debt free, your marriage has “never been better.
Just in case.
If it is a Free Service?
You are the PRODUCT, You are NOT the CUSTOMER.
There is never “Something for Nothing.”
Here’s another “free service” … from Elections Canada:
“Elections Canada wants to buy social media ‘listening’ tool to track threats ahead of 2019 election”
https://globalnews.ca/news/4460966/russian-interference-canadian-election-how-to-stop/?fbclid=IwAR0OogpS8Hvdhi2MK8uCjTiXpgSVHOc6oW6OBRbb1vDuBXXDevnO6Mn53Fk
I think its time to start feeding these social media predatory tactics with some inaccurate info.
I’m worth millions.
I own a dot com.
I have homes on both coasts.
I have three swiss bank accounts and several in the Cayman Islands.
None of this is true.
My Google profile shows me as being female, 104 years old, living in Russia.
That’s exactly the image I had of you too … whoa … ~~~weird ~~~
I think I may have actually dated you back in the 40s…
This is why Alberta will never separate; no matter what a person says they are, too many want to trust government to “break them up”, or “protect children”, or “educate children”, or “take care of our health”…
Until more people realize that government always has been and always will be the source of all problems on Earth, and the the only solution is less government at every opportunity, it will never get better.
Another curious case of “drinking each other’s dirty bath water” and then telling you it’s healthy for you!
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
“You’re not eligible to review this product,”
We used to buy from Amazon alot. It mattered not if we complained about a product that we had purchased.
But Ho BOY! if you write a negative review you just might cut down on sales. Cutting down on sales is an Amazon No-No.
For Amazon, it’s all about the sales volume. Doesn’t matter to Amazon if they’re selling you a pig-in-a-poke.
You can get a replacement unit or your money back, but no matter how bad the product or deal is, the product stays on Amazon.
I have been very pleased with my use of DuckDuckGo… no stalking ads show up on my email page just because I looked at a new chainsaw three weeks ago. Amazon, OTH is spamming me constantly thinking I need more of, or something similar to the soap pads I bought in Jan. 2013.
oh ya, allll these ‘fixes’ eh?
try this: what ‘fix’ is called for when the big money boyz capture the legislative process known as the LOBBYISTS? hmmm?
it’s a well proven means to an end. doesnt matter who is in ‘power’ when the REAL ‘power’ is the size of the bank balance and NOT the size of the election ‘win’.
look for some mention of ‘transparency’ or ‘accountability’ to find out which ideology is
attempting to ‘take over’.
then read up on josef goebbels the pioneer in massive propaganda as the *other* means to an end.