Reply With QuoteNo idea, but wouldn't put it past them, and seems smart from their point of view (annoying from yours!).
I always browse in private mode, and then log in properly to buy.
An odd one this, but we have now noticed this a few times, and yesterday it got really irritating.
If I am browsing to buy stuff on Amazon, it would seem that some of the things I am looking at crop up as recommendations or "are you still interested in" type ads on my wife's seperate Amazon account. It appears they might be encouraging her to buy it for me...
I was looking at some items the other day for her upcoming birthday, and she now knows what I have been looking at.
Has anyone else experienced similar? Surely this is some kind of confidentiality breach?
So clever my foot fell off.
No idea, but wouldn't put it past them, and seems smart from their point of view (annoying from yours!).
I always browse in private mode, and then log in properly to buy.
Have a word with them and explain how this is not only immensely counterproductive as you will need to buy something else and carefully avoid buying it from them, but how peeved you are with them for what you consider a breach of trust (don't use 'privacy' as they will have a knee jerk reaction to send you to some T&C somewhere.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Im looking forward to the new mac update which prevents this behaviour (as well as autoplay videos) without resorting to private mode
Sounds interesting - is that iOS or OS X ?Originally Posted by kultschar
Def osx. Apparently it works great on the beta
Not sure about ios
This isn't necessarily just limited to Amazon - it will happen with Google searches as well. All search data is stored & cross-correlated against that from other devices which may be associated with the original one. Given your house almost certainly only has one IP address - that of your router connection - it's trivial to deduce which devices might be associated with each other. There are even systems that use your phone or tablet to listen for sub-audible signals transmitted while a TV advert is playing so a suitable advert can be pushed to any phone/tablets in the vicinity.
As for data protection, you signed it all away.
Are you sharing a pc ? If so it's just using your cookies
Even on a different PC but on the same network it may be using the same external IP address.
How would you you do this? You'd never get a low-level drone who has no influence over policy.
TFB:
There are other steps to take but check the setting here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/adprefs
Last edited by Alansmithee; 2nd July 2017 at 18:40.
As a prime customer he can ask to be contacted. They call immediately. Then you play the game of 'I would like to talk with your manager'. Only weekdays 9 to 5, otherwise you get the Indian call centre who are very good at solving your order issues but would be useless here. The English call centre upper manager he'll be able to talk to will give TFB an email address at worst, and if he follows it through he'll get a response PDQ.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
The manager themselves is still a low-level drone - you aren't going to get them to change global policy based on one customer - at best you are going to get a few links about how to turn off personalised ads in the account.
You are absolutely correct. Please remember I mentioned trust, not privacy: in this particular case they cocked up massively. So it's not about changing global policy as of course it won't happen, but to find a way an account holder can look for a gift for a family member without Amazon spilling the beans. So someone is bound to be interested, or tell him the upsides are greater than the downside he experienced. By which time a good few posts in social media should get them to pay attention.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
You raise some further interesting questions actually.
Funnily enough, we have two entirely seperate broadband lines into our property. My wife uses the home router, I use my home office one - seperate building.
I am on my PC or iPad linked to my office router, she is on her Macbook or iMac linked to the home router.
So actually the devices will have entirely seperate IP addresses - they must therefore be linking it through our shared home address - or at least that's my guess.
Are you sure about the passive listening to TV advert signals? That is proper scary.
So clever my foot fell off.
There is a thread on PH in which many people claim that they've had targeted ads for a particular product pop up on their mobile/tablet despite only having verbally discussed it with their partner/spouse i.e. They haven't searched for it on the net. It sounds a bit tin foil hat to me but it's happened to a fair few people.
Welcome to Prism, Amazon sharing your interests with your wife is the least of your worries.
NHS just shared all your deets to Google.
Welcome to the future.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Almost as bad (maybe worse..). My wife picked up a new iPad last week. Couldn't remember her login for Apple etc, so used mine. No big deal.
BUT... My web history showed on her iPad, and her iPad browsing on my desktop.
And she thought I was buying her a nice watch!
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