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How Amazon Is Using Your Data To Make You Buy

In 2018 all eyes are on Amazon. Bezos got crowned the wealthiest man in modern history, and Amazon is overtaking Apple as the most valued tech company in America.

Which begs the question, what makes Amazon so successful? I believe their success comes from the ingenious way they use your data.

Today I’m going to talk about three incredibly smart ways Amazon uses your data to empty your wallet. Let’s dive into it.

Recommended For You Section

Go to Amazon right now and log into your account, I’m sure you’re going to see something similar to this.

The ‘recommended for you’ section uses data from your buying habits to recommend items that you’re likely to buy. The psychology here is very intuitive; as human beings, we have a lot of wants. We want things that we don’t even know exists; its Amazon’s job to show us that they do.

As you buy more things on Amazon, you create a profile of your buying habits. From this profile, Amazon’s algorithm can determine what type of products you’re more likely to buy.

For example last week I was buying chia seeds for a kind of snack I wanted to make. Take a look at the picture above, Amazon’s response was, ‘Hey we see you like healthy seed based products, here’s a few more you should check out.’

All of what I’ve mentioned about the ‘recommended for you’ section ties into a proven principle of persuasion called consistency. The principle of consistency states that you are likely to repeat a similar action that you’ve done in the past. Amazon knows this and with the help of your data they can utilize this principle to sell you more stuff.

Amazon Best Seller List

If you’re like me, from time to time you’ve gone to the best seller list out of curiosity. I remember for a time fidget spinners were at the top, and I couldn’t figure out why (maybe they’re just that fun!?). The ‘best seller list’ is a collection of the best-selling products on Amazon across each category based on buying data from users.

But what reason would Amazon have for giving, you, me, and everyone access to this data? If you think about it logically, Amazon should want to protect that data.

Amazon shares this data with us because it helps them sell more products. Yes, the ‘best seller list’ is ingeniously designed to help boost sales and awareness for products. The ‘best seller’ list achieves this goal by using social proof.

The concept of social proof is simple, in our heads it plays out like this – ‘If a lot of people are doing it, then I should be doing it as well.’

Similarly, when we come across a product on the best seller list subconsciously our mind goes – ‘Hey lots of people are buying this, wonder why people are buying it?’ That spark of curiosity is more than enough to cause a sale.

Frequently Bought Together

And who could forget, right before going to the reviews we always run into the dreaded ‘Frequently bought together’ section. I have a confession to make; this section has caused me to buy more things than I would have liked. If my anecdotal evidence doesn’t succeed in convincing you, I’ll go into the genius of this section.

First, it combines the two psychological principles (Social Proof & Consistency) we saw above. Think about it; Amazon has access to data of all transactions for any product. This makes it easy for Amazon to see trends in consumer buying habits for any product. And once Amazon sees a trend which looks financially beneficial they start pushing for it using the ‘Frequently bought together’ section.

Not to mention, if two products are told to be bought frequently together it also gets you wondering why that’s the case. In some cases, it might be enough curiosity for you to buy the product just to try it out.

It’s subtle, but it’s powerful. Using data from buyers (that includes you) Amazon can make compelling recommendations.

Is Your Data Safe?

After learning about all of this, you’re likely wondering if you should be worried about how your data is being used. The answer is yes, anytime your information is being used to manipulate your decisions, you should be concerned.

But is there anything you can do to make sure Amazon doesn’t use your data? Yes and no, let me explain.

If you decide to use Amazon, there’s nothing that you can do. As long as you buy things on Amazon, your purchase history will be available to Amazon. The only way you can stop Amazon from using your data is not to use Amazon. You’ll end your data going to Amazon, but on the other hand, you’ll miss out on the convenience of Amazon.

Also, as long as you use any e-commerce platform, your data is being collected. It’s not just Amazon who’s a culprit; I’ll bet money every platform is doing the same.

Now that you know how your information is being manipulated, you can be more aware of how things work. Your data is important, and you should be cautious of how it’s being used.

A Beginner’s Guide to Staying Safe Online

Every week it seems a new security breach is hitting the headlines so we can be forgiven for thinking the online world is a dangerous place.

Earlier this year, Facebook was lambasted for sharing user data with third party apps, while those with Androids were shocked to learn that their mobile was tracking their every move thanks to built-in location tracking tacked onto Maps and Photos.

And then there was the Amazon Echo incident, where customers realized their every interaction was being gathered together to build a case about who they are and their shopping habits.

So yes, we’d be forgiven for thinking the online world is a scary place.

Sure, the internet has impacted our lives in amazing ways, but there is a dark side just like with everything else.

But because we’ve been so eager to dip our toes into the countless benefits that the internet brings (being able to communicate with anyone, anywhere is pretty priceless), we’ve lost some of our personal privacy along the way. It’s kind of an exchange – we let you do this in exchange for this information about yourself.

This isn’t about to stop anytime soon.

We like the freedom to contact someone on the other side of the world with the click of a button. We like being able to next-day-deliver something we’ve coveted for all of five minutes. We like being able to read our favorite news stories without having to shell out for a hard copy.

Handing over our data for online freedom is the price we pay. Everything we do on the web leaves a digital trail that can be swept up and used by corporations and governments.

The problem is in the transparency of it all. Legalese in tiny fonts that are unreadable with the naked eye pull the wool over users’ eyes. We want to sign up to Twitter so we can see what everyone’s saying about the latest celebrity scandal, so we blindly tick the “yes” box without really agreeing to have our data scraped through and sold on for who knows what purpose.

Giving away even the tiniest snippets of data about yourself can leave you at risk from less-than-stellar companies, but there are steps you can take to limit how much data is siphoned from your internet activity.

If you’re not tech savvy and don’t know how to navigate the ins and outs of the World Wide Web, let us help you out.

Encrypt Your Email

Email is not going anywhere anytime soon. In 2017, more than 270 billion emails were sent, a number that’s set to increase to 320 billion by 2020.

We hear all the time about email accounts getting hacked, and this form of online communication has been hailed as the absolute worst for security. This is because a single email message gets passed around several different servers before it reaches its final destination.

You can keep the content of your messages private with encryption. Some email providers already offer this as standard, but for others you might need to download an add-on or a plugin. When it comes to the metadata that accompanies your emails though (the sender, receiver, time stamps etc), there’s nothing you can do as the internet routing system needs this information to do its job.

Hide Your History

We often get sucked into a wormhole on the internet and find ourselves knee deep in cute cat videos when all we wanted was to find a review for the new washing machine we’ve got our eye on.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would be interested in the meandering trail we took to get to the cat videos, but this information can be used by companies to know what sites we visit the most and how we get from one to the other.

This log of sites you visit is known as your “clickstream”, and you can take a look right now at the online journey you’ve taken over the past day by simply clicking “History” and then “Full Browsing History” when your browser is open.

This information isn’t private unless you always browse the web in Incognito mode so the sites don’t retain your Cookies (watch the video below to understand what Cookies are), or to download a free tool that obscures your clickstream.

Video:

Get Savvy with Your Social

It always seems to be social media sites hitting the headlines with privacy concerns (we’re looking at you, Facebook), and that’s because social channels are filled with a bounty of information about their users; from date of birth to restaurants you regularly check into and your closest friends, these sites literally have an incredible low-down on you.

But again, it’s the price we pay to stay in the loop and to share filtered pics with our nearest and dearest.

The best advice here for eliminating any chance of your data being scraped and used elsewhere is to delete all of your social media accounts.

If that seems too drastic, give yourself peace of mind by having your accounts on the highest security settings possible (here’s a great guide to help you do that) and leaving out any identifying information like your date of birth or your home town.

We can’t control what others post on social media (and sometimes they’ll post stuff about us that disappears into the ether), but we can control what we hand over to the grasping hands of big corporations.

Leave Your Location Out of It

There’s something thrilling about checking into a new place, whether we’re humblebragging about visiting the latest high-end restaurant or simply want people to know that we’re Out There Having Fun.

But location data can be incredibly valuable if it falls into the right hands.

Think about it: not only are you providing information about where you are and what you’re doing there, you’re handing over data like what time of day you like to do that activity, and you’re even giving nearby locations the chance to target you with ads while you’re in the vicinity.

The answer here is simple: turn off your location when you don’t need it and avoid using sites that require you to “check in” or need location information.

Other Things You Can Do

Encrypting your email, being elusive with your social media information, and avoiding the lure of “checking in” are good starting points for protecting your online data privacy.

But, taking it further, you can ensure that your password across everything is not something that can easily be guessed. Instead of having a password, go for a passphrase that is made up of multiple words, numbers, and symbols.

And, when it comes to your search engine habits, be ruthless.

Many of the big search engines make a note of your searches and build a profile of you to serve up relevant ads. If you want to avoid this, you need to avoid the big guys and instead use a search engine that doesn’t track your every search term (the oddly-named DuckDuckGo is good for this).

Protecting online data is a big concern for most internet users, but for the tech-phobic it can be truly terrifying, especially if you don’t even know how to start protecting yourself.

Hopefully these tips will point you in the right direction and help you get your privacy back under control, pronto.

Good Idea / Bad Idea: Protecting Yourself Online Edition

I have always loved to think of my life decisions in the simplistic black and white terms of the classic Animaniacs Good Idea / Bad Idea segments.

Here’s a great example:

Good idea: taking a deep breath before jumping into a swimming pool.

Bad idea: taking a deep breath after jumping into a swimming pool.

Animaniacs is a classic, and I love how good idea / bad idea makes it seem so easy to do the right thing. Of course, over the years I’ve found that life is rarely as neatly broken up into good and bad as the show made it seem. However, keeping your data and yourself safe online is one area in which the good and the bad are fairly self-evident, and it’s also an area that becomes more and more important each day. So let’s do it. Also, watch Animaniacs if you haven’t seen it — it’s a damn classic.

Good idea: Make sure you don’t share information about your location. Do not geotag!!
Bad idea: Posting your address, followed by a long story about how you’re home alone with the doors unlocked.

Good idea: Review your privacy settings on each of your platforms regularly.
Bad idea: Just making everything public, because you “don’t have any information worth stealing anyway.”

Good idea: Dying without ever knowing which Spice Girl you are most like based on your posts.
Bad idea: Authorizing any third party application you’re not familiar with (e.g. Perzonality Testz R Us LOLZ) to access your Facebook data for any purpose at all. It’s not worth it to find out which vegetable most closely matches your face. Though good lord I know it’s tempting. You should also prevent your data from being shared with apps that your Facebook friends are using – find more tips here.

Good idea: Regularly Google yourself in order to find out what potential employers would see if they checked up on you.
Bad idea: Avoid Googling yourself in order to never find out what potential employers would see if they checked up on you. I mean, I get it, but sticking your head in the sand to ensure that no problem ever reaches you at all is no way to….oh forget it, it’s a great way to live and I cannot hear you from way down here in the sand.

Good idea: Limiting the number of digital platforms you give your personal data to.
Bad idea: Setting up a profile on every new platform you encounter, using it for a few months, and then abandoning it. If a potential employer finds your 2003 MySpace blog, they’re the ones who will be sorry.

Good idea: Two factor authentication.
Bad idea: Giggling because “two factor authentication” sounds like something a robot would say. It does, but someone who uses the same password for everything and it’s “password1” really shouldn’t be laughing.

Good idea: Sharing pictures of your cat on Reddit or Imgur.
Bad idea: Sharing pictures of your child on Reddit or Imgur. This is at every parent’s discretion, and far be it for me to tell you how to parent your kid, but also why are you broadcasting the most vulnerable member of your family on the platforms with the most terrifying creeps.

Good idea: Not sharing your password with friends.
Bad idea: Using your most trusted barista at Starbucks as some sort of human password manager. I guarantee that barista will turn on you the moment your drink order becomes too idiotic. Don’t ask me how I know. *Sips Venti Iced Skinny Hazelnut Macchiato, Sugar-Free Syrup, Extra Shot, Light Ice, No Whip.*

Good idea: Taking everything you see online with a grain of salt
Bad idea: Kicking yourself for not realizing that Elvis was homeless in San Diego this whole time. This has nothing to do with privacy, but it’s important for your safety that you always verify what you read online. And also it’s important that I mention this story about Elvis because I was deeply upset when I found out this wasn’t true.

Good idea: Never revealing too much about yourself to strangers online.
Bad idea: Striking up a friendship with a nine-year-old painting prodigy, her mom, and her teenaged sister, only to later discover that it was actually just a middle aged woman playing three different characters. On an unrelated note, I just watched the original Catfish documentary, and boy is it good!!

Good idea: Familiarizing yourself with different kinds of phishing attacks.
Bad idea: Entering your online banking information into a random site so you can receive your tax refund that is being emailed to you and you haven’t submitted your taxes in six years, but this should turn out pretty good.

Good idea: Declining to engage with trolls and bullies online.
Bad idea: Becoming an infamous internet troll and getting enough people angry at you that you eventually get doxxed.

Good idea: Only posting things online that you’re comfortable with everyone seeing, even if your privacy settings are airtight.
Bad idea: Posting specific, detailed rants about your boss on Facebook that would both allow your boss to finally get the leverage to fire you and also enable any enterprising stalker to easily find you at your workplace.

Good idea: Logging off once in a while to read a book.
Bad idea: Seriously, read books, or this is what will happen: