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Amazon guilty of profiling, pic inside!
- Thread starter SFA_AOK
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Chittagong
Gold Member
Uh, so..?
Their profiling works damn well. They've managed to sell me many management books based on their purchasing profiles, and ones that have really interested me. Win-win, in my opinion.
Their profiling works damn well. They've managed to sell me many management books based on their purchasing profiles, and ones that have really interested me. Win-win, in my opinion.
They've been guilty of this profiling for a while. It was one thing when they started recommending other purchases based on things you added to your basket, but now they even have a section at the bottom called "the page you made" or something like that. Any item you look at seems to affect the results of the page. It's like going to google and having a sidebar that says "Hey, want more Japanese rope sluts? Cuz that's the last thing you searched for!" It's even worse because there's no way to sign out on the main page.
No those prices are about right (70%-90% higher than the US). It's the main reason I import from America and Canada. Much earlier releases and they're usually at least 50% cheaper than what I'd pay over here.
People over here need to start voting with their wallet and import en-masse from places like CDWOW, DVDSoon, Playusa etc.
aoi tsuki said:
There is. On the main page (the welcome tab) and at the top of the screen it says:
Hello, *Your username*. Explore today's featured recommendations. (If you're not *Your username* , click here.) Clicking on "here" signs you out
I like their profiling though, it's been quite useful. I bought a load of ECW vids a few years ago and everytime I found a new one, it recommended another that I hadn't seen. It can be pretty useful...but then it messes up because it adds EVERYTHING whether it's for you or not
I like charmed from season 4 on...that's when they started to wear less clothing.
My girlfriend has bought season 1 as well as downloaded every episode so far and even still watches it when it's on TV and if I'm watching something else, you can be sure she has the DVR set to record it.
My girlfriend has bought season 1 as well as downloaded every episode so far and even still watches it when it's on TV and if I'm watching something else, you can be sure she has the DVR set to record it.
I believe Amazon refers to it as data mining according to their job openings positions. Frankly, I don't mind it at all since, as others have noted, you can disable certain recommendations, log out, or just see why things are recommended to you. Moreover, and this is the best part: it works. When I go bouncing around Amazon looking up music CDs that, for example, people recommend here, it often churns up other recommendations on what other people have bought or similar artists and I'll be damned if 90% of the time it's not dead-on. During moments of boredom, I'll even go to "The Page You Made" and sort through checking items I own, marking items I'm not interested in, and so on, just so it can recommend better things in the future. It works wonders, and I've bought countless books and music CDs thanks to it -- of course, Amazon is one of the few companies I hold in high esteem, so it's not something I'm keen to see other companies adopt.
Amazon's profiling is one of the most useful non-google services in internet history. I have mine tuned to the point where almost everything it recommends is something I'm interested in. As soon as something sucky comes up, check the "not interested" box and you're on your way to finding things you didn't even know you liked. Heck, a lot of the stuff it recommends is stuff I already have, but then I click the "I own it" box and it's all good.
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