Amazon received a US patent to provide “surveillance as a service.”

[jasaloo]

"Meanwhile, Amazon’s Echo and voice-assisted personal assistant, Alexa, was in an estimated 24% of US households as of the fourth quarter of 2018..."

Well that's unnerving.

[netwanderer3]

I'm guessing surveillance will soon turn privacy into a cash cow industry. We will see companies providing "privacy as a service" coming up. The constant cat and mouse games could enable unlimited exponential growths. Security firms will be absolutely everywhere and even small businesses would have their own dedicated "security & privacy department".

[jammygit]

Time to cancel my prime I guess. I really liked amazon before the news about their employees and surveillance business came out

[avgDev]

Yeah.....I used to be BIG amazon fan. On the surface amazon is amazing, easy shopping, no need to walk around the store, no need to drive, no need to talk to anyone, it saves time. HOWEVER, reviews used to be great but now you simply cannot trust anything but negative reviews.

So now, I'm going back to basics when it comes to shopping for anything over $1k+, I talk to people I know. People that do not have any skin in the game.

Now that I think of it, anything online cannot be trusted. For example, I am looking for a new car, all the car reviews are mostly positive. Car reviewers usually get invited to events but I'm sure if they shit on a brand they would not have access to vehicles before release. I'm looking at new Santa Fe, however, they recently got their offices raided because of the massive problems with 2.4 engine(fires, and high failure rates) and no reviewer even mentions it. So, one needs to go to forum of owners and see what they experience is like.

I wish there was a different amazon, where the website actually researches the product, and offers expert + verified consumer reviews that cannot be swayed in any way. No 3rd party sellers. One can only dream.

[jasaloo]

did the same a while back. Though it likely doesn't change much, never hurts to tell them that this is the specific reason you're leaving.

[paladinxx]

Up next, "Amazon 'Served' as a service": Using Echo/Blink/Ring, Amazon determine when you are home then use Key to enter your home and serve you legal papers, recording the entire interaction to the cloud for access by the courts.