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Amazon Patent’s Privacy Pratfall
Unless Amazon stitches in some safeguards and limits, a nosy neighbor or burglar could spend plenty of time nudging out nuggets of private information that Amazon never planned to reveal. In the wrong hands, that fact could make playing “20 Questions” really worth the trouble. There’s gold in them thar gift suggestions.
And while the Patent application mentions privacy, it’s not in the context of keeping a customer’s purchases or other information secret. For this gift recommendation engine, it’s all about keeping the gift a secret. As the Patent Pending says: “The AGR system will attempt to provide only the minimal amount of information necessary about purchases made by users in order to protect the privacy of those users and to maintain surprise about gifts to be received.” (Yep. Depending on how much information is revealed through gift suggestion hints, the customer recipient may get more of a surprise than Amazon counted on.)
On the other hand, the system also reflects some good thinking on age issues. For example, let’s say an Amazon customer has a 5-year-old niece. The system would remember that–nothing new–and recommend other 5-year-old girl gifts. But the system would also note the calendar and change its recommendations in a year to 6-year-old girl gifts. (This approach wouldn’t always be appropriate; for example, a kindergarten teacher may perpetually want to know what 5-year-olds like. But it’s a very good start.)
The system also wants to use the data about when a customer is about to get a gift from yet another person. In this case, Jane is having a birthday, you want to get her a gift and you ask Amazon if this particular Blu-Ray movie is a good choice. Amazon’s system would know that someone else has already purchased that disc for Jane and that it’s in transit. As a result, the system would say the gift was inappropriate.
In fairness, it should be pointed out that large companies will often have Patents–and certainly Patent Pendings–for things they never end up launching. Amazon itself has various Patents it has yet to turn into a product or a feature. Still, at some level of Amazon, this Patent Pending does reflect its executives’ thinking.
Such a step should clearly have safeguards built in, including customer opt-in (or at least an opt-out) and various privacy restrictions. The Patent Pending doesn’t mention these. But as a legal document, the absence of such limits does not necessarily mean Amazon isn’t considering them.
From a business standpoint, though, this move is wonderfully strategic. By growing from making recommendations to current customers to being a source of data for lots of other purchases, Amazon could be well-positioned for major growth. It’s also a deliciously non-vicious revenue cycle, as people go to Amazon to learn what gifts to buy and end up buying stuff for themselves while there.
-Marc
July 8th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Nicely done, Erik. It’s scary stuff and you explained it well. Thanks!
However … “Patent Pending(s)” ???
Where do we find “patent pending” used as a thing rather than a simple, short statement that a patent is pending for the invention?
When patents are pending, they’re simply pending patents, right?
And why on earth do we find “patent” capitalized in this piece? Even the United States Patent and Trademark Office doesn’t capitalize the word except in headlines, document titles, etc.
OK, so it’s a nit. You’re in a hurry and supported by an editor who has less time than you do to bang these things out. It’s just the Internet.
I don’t have an editor so I’m sure I’ve used sloppy language somewhere in the above ….. Mea culpa.
July 8th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Okay, this begs the question: How does Amazon know who the “stranger” is? Certainly a name isn’t sufficient: I can’t just say I want to buy a gift for Jane Smith, as there must be hundreds or thousands in the database. Will the system prompt me for the correct address? Because this could allow someone to “look up” a person who may not be listed in other online directories.
And the example of the 5-year-old: Do I have to provide the name and age? It is unlikely that the 5-year-old will be in Amazon’s database–who lets 5-year-olds shop online under their own name? So now I am ADDING the 5-year-old to Amazon’s database FOR THEM! Along with the address, etc.
Now, you could claim that many gifts are purchased for 5-year-olds from Amazon, so they are already in the “ship-to” database. But those names are not specifically tied to the age of the recipient; even if the gift is age-specific, it may be shipped in the parent’s name.
And, since many of us buy from multiple online sources, Amazon’s database on us is necessarily incomplete, so the example of indicating that a CD has already been purchased for someone would only occasionally be possible.
July 8th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Bob, you’re quite right but missed the point: of course Google will need access a great deal more data, specifically including that from the infamous third parties – perhaps public records of various sorts. Then they can cross-reference the data to uniquely identify all of us. All under the name of making it easy to purchase gifts for one another. How innocuous does that sound?
This is one more strategem Google is using to amass the Database of Destiny (DoD) that will allow them to insinuate themselves into our lives at every point.
Let’s all re-read George Orwell, shall we?