Amazon Crosses the "Creepy" Line
Don Peppers
Customer experience expert, keynote speaker, business author, Founder of Peppers & Rogers Group
I never thought I would be writing something like this about Amazon. But Amazon, a company I have always considered the very emblem of trust and customer-centric policy, has now distinctly crossed that blurry but dangerous line between personalization and outright creepiness. Amazon, the same company Martha Rogers and I have lauded in virtually all of our books on customer experience, the same company I have praised unconditionally in nearly all my keynote addresses and workshops around the world (50+ countries at last count) – Amazon has crossed the creepy line!
We have always been BIG fans of Amazon in my household, and my wife has always been an avid user. Especially when she can’t find something at a retail store, it seems she can usually find it at Amazon, where the service is impeccable, and they go out of their way to ensure our satisfaction. We are Prime subscribers, so we get free shipping, and Amazon TV. And we are constantly asking Alexa to tell us the news, or to play an opera from my Amazon Music playlist, or just to tell a joke for our 9-year-old granddaughter when she’s visiting.
But a couple of days ago my wife began complaining that when she went online somewhere else to buy something that Amazon didn’t seem to have (a special kind of outdoor plant pot and stand that she thought she might only be able to get at Frontgate, or some other specialist site) she said that while she was on those competitive sites, popup ads began appearing from Amazon, with pictures and prices for Amazon’s outdoor pots and stands. She was mortified. It was as if she were in a store with someone spying on her, looking over her shoulder, and refusing to take “no” for an answer.
She commented to me that she was now “mad” at Amazon, and was planning to use them only when she really had to. And I was mystified. How could Amazon even KNOW when she was on a competitive site and what she was shopping for? How was that possible?
And then a couple of hours ago the story broke on the Ad Age website. Amazon Assistant, a browser extension, enables Amazon to track 100% of your web activity, in real time, and Amazon was giving people a $10 coupon if they installed it. Unbeknownst to my wife, while she was completing a different set of transactions at Amazon, she had must have accepted one of those coupons. She doesn’t even recall installing anything, just clicking on a button or two to collect the credit, which she thought was associated either with a return she’d just submitted or a purchase she’d just made.
We’ve just uninstalled Amazon Assistant from her computer.
I’d be interested to know whether anyone else has encountered this issue and been creeped out?
Contract Manager at Purvis Business Machines, Inc.
5yIt's happened to me.. Very scary.
Founder & CEO, Consultant, Advisor, Mindset and business strategy coach to early stage entrepreneurs
5yDon Peppers I think it is time we looked to a future beyond Amazon and vote consciously with our wallets supporting sustainable businesses of the future which you won’t find many of them on Amazon or you shouldn’t anyway. Why? Because thy simply don’t care about the environment and how those cheap products are made.
Not-for-profit and Fundraising Executive
5yThe trouble is, Amazon, Facebook, and Google sell our personal data but do not pay us for it! Where's the basic capital payment to the creator of the info?
Technical Sales Manager at Fi-Tech, Inc.
5yMy Alexa found its way into the trashcan after a few creepy incidents. I am trending away from Amazon use. Time to remove myself from the grid as much as is possible
Experienced senior executive and management consultant
5yDon, you know too well that TRUST is a two-way thing and is part of the value exchange. I have voluntarily traded 'privacy' (access to my data) for other value companies are providing (Google, not least among those, but also Microsoft's LinkedIn, where we are talking right now). The problem is not with the tracking (and I wouldn't call it 'spying' where I have voluntarily agreed). It is in the COMMUNICATION, always a critical and often a poorly managed aspect of relationships. Of any relationships - from intimate human ones between couples, to team leadership at work, to large-scale B2B commerce. When Amazon's execution of an (otherwise not bad!) idea falls short in the communication department, the lack of transparency (e.g. burying the info in small print or on never-accessed deep pages) - can easily be seen as very intentional masking of intent. And masked intent is then easily perceived as malicious, destroying trust, reputation, and relationships. Instead of bribing users with a laughable $10 voucher (to buy data/value worth many thousands), Amazon could have simply COMMUNICATED the value exchange: openly explaining why they are tracking and what the user's benefits would be in return. Such openness and clearly articulated advantages might have persuaded people better than $10, and would have eliminated suspicions and negative backlash. For the record: also a long-time active user and genuine fan of Amazon, I have NOT installed the Assistant extension and am watching this space for precisely the reasons in this timely discussion. Let's see how Amazon will handle it after Don Peppers (and other prominent voices) have spoken about it :)