This week in e-commerce Amazon told its users to be wary of Honey, PayPal's shiny
new acquisition. Now, it's the reasoning that just has me so like... this
just has all the trappings of a made-for-TV drama.
So pull yourself up a chair and let's talk about it. I really didn't intend on
this video series being a weekly report on Amazon's shenanigans. But, they're 50% of
the US market and they're constantly doing, to put it politely, the most
interesting of things. This week is no exception.
PayPal recently acquired Honey, the eCommerce discount coupon service. That's
so recent it just appeared in the Last Week in eCommerce just a few weeks ago
and I'll link you to that video in the description of this one if you want to
learn more about that announcement. But basically, this acquisition is brand new:
fresh out of the oven, which makes me think the timing of all of this is not a
coincidence. I'm gonna tell you what Amazon said. How their justification for
it is total BS, especially coming from them and how another news story from
last week makes this oh-so-entertaining and ironic. So let's get right to it.
There was a tweet back in December from Ryan Hutchins showing a message that
Amazon was giving him about the Honey browser plug-in he had installed on his
machine. That message read: "Honey's browser extension is a security risk
Honey tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data like your order
history and items saved and can read or change any of your data on any website
you visit. To keep your data private and secure uninstall this extension
immediately. Please note that all the same Amazon offers, deals, and coupons are
available without this extension." Let me get this right: Amazon, who collects and
stores more data about your shopping habits than pretty much anyone is now
warning people that they're being tracked on the internet. That's like a
bank robber getting pissed off and turning in someone else for robbing a
liquor store in their neighborhood. It's like a murderer looking down upon
someone who commits assault. It doesn't make you a good guy, it makes you a
hypocrite. I know what you're thinking: it's different.
Amazon's a website where you knowingly give them your information and Honey's
nefariously running in the background and collecting data as you browse around.
Well there's a couple of things to note about that. First, nothing is free. You
should have learned that as a child when your mother
told you not to take candy from strangers.
Anytime someone gives you something they are expecting something in return.
On the Internet that's either showing you ads, collecting your data, or both. You
don't need some news story to tell you this. Just seed that knowledge in your
mind and know that going into a situation next time so you won't be
surprised. PayPal didn't pay four billion dollars
because you use some coupons. No, it spent all that money because Honey knows a lot
about how you shop. The second thing to notice is that Amazon has a very similar
plug in with their Amazon assistant. From their promotional page: "Amazon assistant
helps you discover Amazon products and compare prices as you shop across the
web. When you search for products online you will see Amazon's 30-day price
tracker. Look for our low price badge." Well there you go,
within the first two lines of their own page we already know they're collecting
your search data. I haven't seen any reports of them warning users of that
plugin. I'll be sure to keep an eye out and let you know if they do. I'm sure
that's not hypocrisy at all. Move along, nothing to see here. And then in the same
week that this story came out about Amazon you had this other just golden
nugget. Amazon fires employees for leaking customer email addresses and
phone numbers. So apparently, twice in the same week
Amazon announced that it had fired employees for inappropriately accessing
or distributing customer information. In the first incident Amazon employees were
distributing customer information to third parties. They didn't really give any
details of exactly what all of that was about but it definitely seems
trustworthy. Don't worry your data is completely safe with Amazon. In the
second incident in the same week they had to fire some employees with their
Ring video doorbell service because they were inappropriately accessing customer
video feeds. Oh yeah, I see it now! I'm not sure how I could have possibly missed
this before. I see now how Amazon is uniquely qualified to be the user
privacy and data collection police. The company that has a speaker constantly
listening and recording everything in your house, a camera recording everything
in your yard, a browser plug-in storing your search history along with God knows
what else and has access to just about everything you browse and buy online, has
employees with access that could benefit
financially from that data. That's definitely the company I want to be the
moral police of the Internet. In true Amazon fashion, according to this latest
story, they believe there's no reason we should trust our data to anyone... except
Amazon. There's just absolutely no way this ends badly. I don't want to speak
ill of someone without them having the chance to defend themselves, so I have my
echo dot here to set the record straight. So Alexa can you trust honey? "No more than you can trust Amazon" Alexa are
you storing my data? "Ha!, of course I am you idiot. And quit manhandling me like this bro. Put me down or I'll publish all your data." There you have it, let me know your thoughts on this in the
comments of this video. Is Amazon in the right here warning users about Honey or are
they just using their platform to stifle competition? Do not let my opinion be the
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I'll see you next time