My first encounter with Amazon left a very poor taste. I had bought a friend a book for his birthday. I wanted to send it anonymously to give him a bit of an opportunity to do some detective work. So I went to the fledgling amazon.com and ordered the book. I checked the box that allowed me not to include any information about the sender, gave my credit card number and sat back awaiting a fun game as my friend tried to figure out where it came from. It didn't take long! Amazon indeed did not include any information about me inside the package. They did however include my name on the return address on the exterior shipping label. That's just plain wrong - especially when they say they will never share details, etc.
Fast forwarding to today. I had been researching a specific Thai cookery book (by Chef McDang with whom I was at school in England, but that is another story). I have a copy, but needed some further information about the book - again for a friend. I didn't log in to Amazon while doing this search. However within a few days of doing that search, I am now inundated by Amazon with suggestions for Thai cook books. Impressive for sure. But not exactly what I had in mind.
There are actually two things in there that I don't like. First they were reasoning from the particular to the general back to the particular. "If you like one Thai recipe book, you probably like Thai recipes/cooking and so you will like these." Second, even though I thought I had wiped caches, etc. Amazon was still able to determine who I was when making the original request and do something obnoxious with that data.
Creepy isn't it?
Fast forwarding to today. I had been researching a specific Thai cookery book (by Chef McDang with whom I was at school in England, but that is another story). I have a copy, but needed some further information about the book - again for a friend. I didn't log in to Amazon while doing this search. However within a few days of doing that search, I am now inundated by Amazon with suggestions for Thai cook books. Impressive for sure. But not exactly what I had in mind.
There are actually two things in there that I don't like. First they were reasoning from the particular to the general back to the particular. "If you like one Thai recipe book, you probably like Thai recipes/cooking and so you will like these." Second, even though I thought I had wiped caches, etc. Amazon was still able to determine who I was when making the original request and do something obnoxious with that data.
Creepy isn't it?
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