University of National and World
Economy
Course:
Customer relationship management
Customer Privacy Concerns and Privacy Protective Responses on Amazon
Done by:
Hristiyan Petrov – 18114142
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Table of content:
What is Amazon? – Pg 1
What data is collected? Pg 1
Is the data shared? Pg 2
How is it protected? Pg 2
Customer concerns Pg 2
References Pg 3
What is Amazon?
Amazon is a cloud computing giant and the largest American e-commerce company. It was
founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Originally known for selling books through its website (and
later digital versions via its Kindle e-reader), Amazon has built up a customer service,
inventory, and shipping empire that allows the site to offer everything from clothes to
janitorial supplies. It also sells digital content like movies, music, and apps. Its Amazon
Web Services arm is a multibillion-dollar provider of cloud-based services for millions of
business customers around the world, including government agencies and universities. And
it’s a major player in consumer electronics--not only by offering devices such as Fire tablets
and TV boxes, but also via its Alexa AI assistant service.
As such a colossal company with millions of clients who need to share a portion of their
personal information for the sake of even making an account, not to mention ordering
something from the site, it is vital for the company to have a well written and easy to
understand customer privacy policy, complying with the GDPR requirements. All the
information regarding privacy and legal policies can be found on Amazons web site. The
gathered data is used to purchase products and services as well as improve them,
recommendations and personalization, advertising, fraud prevention and credit risks and
many more.
What data is collected?
To begin with let us take a look at some the information Amazon collects from its
customers.
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identifying information such as name, address, and phone numbers;
payment information;
age;
location information;
IP address;
people, addresses and phone numbers listed in Addresses;
email addresses of friends and other people;
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content of reviews and emails to us;
personal description and photograph in Profile;
voice recordings when speken to Alexa;
images and videos collected or stored in connection with Amazon Services;
information and documents regarding identity, including Social Security and driver's
license numbers;
 corporate and financial information;
 credit history information;
 device log files and configurations, including Wi-Fi credentials
Amazon automatically collects and stores certain types of information about use of their
services, including information about interaction with content and services available through
Amazon Services. Like many other websites, they use "cookies" and other unique identifiers,
and obtain certain types of information when the web browser or device accesses Amazon
Services and other content served by or on behalf of Amazon on other websites. The list goes
on, but these are the main sources of information the users provide knowingly and sometimes
unknowingly to the company.
Does Amazon share personal information ?
Amazon claims that they do not sell personal information, although they share the gathered
info from their customers with a number of third party vendors. For example they employ
other companies and or individuals to perform functions on their behalf, which include:
fulfilling orders for products and services, delivering packages, sending mail, processing
payments and more. Another example can be witnessed due to Amazon working with third
parties and selling their good, services and applications through Amazon Services. These are
just a few occasions in which Amazon provides intel on its customers to third parties.
How is the data protected?
Customers may be concerned about their private information but the company assures them
it is save with a number of security features which include: `
 They work to protect the security of personal information during transmission by using
encryption protocols and software.
 They follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) when handling
credit card data.
 They maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in connection with the
collection, storage, and disclosure of customer personal information. The security
procedures mean that the customer may ask to verify their identity before before personal
information is disclosed
 Amazons devices offer security features to protect them against unauthorized access and
loss of data. Clients can control these features and configure them based on their needs.
All these details and more about customer privacy are listed on amazons web site, and
customers should read them and be aware of how their information is used, gathered and
stored, before becoming a client. In case that someone is not willing to grant all the
information Amazon automatically collects, they can choose not to provide certain
information, but that will mean that they are no longer eligible for the majority of the
advantages of the Amazon Service. Nevertheless customers can always request their
information to be erased by the company as it is a right stated in the GDPR.
Cusomers Concerns
An example for this is the AI speaker Alexa. Although it’s designed to listen only
when called upon, the divice can hear everything said in the range of its microphones
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it is listening for its wake word before it actually starts recording anything. Once it
hears that, everything in the following few seconds is perceived to be a command or a
request, and it’s sent up to Amazon’s cloud computers, where the correct response is
triggered. Users have noticed that after having a conversation about a certain item or
product near Alexa, in a few days they start seeing advertisements on the internet
about said product or item. Though Alexa selectively listens for its wake word, it can’t
selectively filter out voices. This means that anyone in the room is potentially subject
to its listening and recording powers. So any child or house guest may be engaging
(knowingly or not) with Alexa. Recording a child without parental permission is illegal
in some states, similar to video recording laws.
References:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GX7NJQ4ZB8MHFRNJ
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazons-alexa-never-stops-listening-to-you/
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