Amazon suggests user delete tweet showing how much data they collect (opens in new tab)

That's a clickbait headline. It is clearly a support person that sees a list of addresses that could include the address of the user and uses their macro to tell the user to delete the tweet. Just like they would do if someone posts their password, date of birth or credit card information.

I used to work at Amazon, but even then it's pretty clear the support person is erring on the side of caution here. in isolation two grocery store addresses and orders isn't particularly illuminating, but tying it with their real name it suddenly provides information on where they've been in past few years that might not otherwise have. and what if their order history accidentally contained something embarassing?

i think its a good thing for support to (be told to) err on the side of caution with account information, though some nuance that you could "remove/blur/blackbar information" would be nice.

This is great.

Probably most HN users know that, of course, if someone buys an Alexa and keeps it in their home, it is going to have a bunch of audio recordings of them. And all of the Whole Foods transactions will be logged as well. And even a silly amount info about how they use the Kindle.

But I don't think most Twitter users know.

I also enjoy that there is a tweet about how to request your data from Amazon, here: https://twitter.com/AlinaUtrata/status/1485196120997478404

Next I wonder if Amazon will badger Twitter to take down the tweet on the basis it has some PII (which I'm not even sure it does, but if it does, it is the users own information. And afaik you can't dox yourself.)

So I hate my data being collected like this, and try to reduce when it happens whenever I can. But, buying an Alexa and then complaining they store the audio? When they confirmed they kept it about two years ago?

Imagine I found out the library kept a list of titles I borrowed! Or my bank account storing my transactions.

I understand from this that we are forced to share PII with Amazon with every interaction, but we are not supposed to share it with Twitter followers. US citizens can get their dossiers and delete their accounts. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-p... I received 88 zip files and subsequently deleted my account.

If you log into a loyalty account for a Kroger store (QFC, Fred Meyer, others)... you see similar transaction lists. This is extremely normal for retailers.

Also, machine learning can create shadow profiles for people, even those who don't have a loyalty account. (E.g., a purchase occurs every Friday around 5:30 and buys a specific beer and specific brats...).

This is all obvious stuff to me, but, also, people might not be aware that every interaction - touchpoint - on a big enterprise is recorded.

The addresses are whole foods stores

Title is misleading. They didn't really suggest to delete the tweet because of the fact it shows their data collection, but because it contains some PII like the user's address.

I don't want to side with Amazon on this, but I genuinely believe there is nothing strange here: Amazon collects all that data, and under GDPR they have to provide all the data they have on your profile. Seems pretty standard. Google provides the same amount of data (or more) if you ask :)

At best this is a clickbait title. Cleary support team only wants to help you but not compromising your own PII details.

I question the appropriateness of @AmazonHelp jumping into a thread that it was not tagged in and that is not even asking for help with anything.

"*years ago when I was young and foolish about surveillance"

So I guess now they is just foolish?