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by garciasn 1519 days ago
Ad agencies hearing that I want to know the weather, dad jokes, recipes, turn on and off my lights, and to listen to smooth jazz is literally the least of my problems when it comes to data being shared/sold.

Just like anything, there’s a trade off and, for the case of convenience, I’m willing to make the trade off between convenience of talking to a device to do tasks for me and having an ad agency learn what music I listen to that Amazon is probably selling to them anyway since I use the Amazon Music service.

I get your skepticism and applaud it, but you have to remember 99% of the population doesn’t know, care at all, or is willing to make the trade off, whereas the 1% are some of those folks amassed here on HN.

YMMV.
1 comments
A4ET8a8uTh0 1519 days ago
I upvoted specifically, because this is effectively how a lot of users see this feature ( admittedly based on anecdata ). I might even expand on it. Most users do not even see a trade-off. Most see pure benefit.

But.. there is hope as jokes along the lines 'Wiretap, what is the time?' seem to have become more common.

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garciasn 1519 days ago
I know Amazon isn't doing a whole helluva lot with the data they're collecting on me via their UI nor their devices; if they were, I would have a lot better recommendations than they offer to me on the regular. Yes, recommendation engines are hard, but Amazon has the computational power, resourcing, and data to do it well, yet they're simply not.

So. For now, I'm fairly convinced the data collected are useless/meaningless and I'm happy to go about my day w/o much worry. If I suddenly start seeing much better targeted recommendations, I'll rethink my strategy.

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A4ET8a8uTh0 1519 days ago
I.. have a problem with this line of reasoning. If the data is there, it will be used; maybe it will not be used now, but it will used and you have little control over how and when..

And heavens know how much better we will get at it. I am retard at analytics and the things I saw are already absolutely amazing. Just because ads can't seem to show you relevant information is not a good indication Amazon can't infer you like midget porn.

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