How Much Is Your Data worth? Amazon Has Begun Paying Some Users $2 A Month To Let The E-Commerce Giant Monitor Their Phone Traffic.

How Much Is Your Data worth? Amazon Has Begun Paying  Some Users $2 A Month To Let The E-Commerce Giant Monitor Their Phone Traffic.
Photo by Christian Wiediger / Unsplash

The ad verification initiative, part of Amazon's invite-only Shopper Panel rewards program, routes data through Amazon servers and monitors "what ads participants saw, where they saw them, and the time of day they were viewed," Business Insider reports. Amazon says it wants to personalize ads and surface better products, but privacy advocates are skeptical. For instance, The Verge insists "your data should be far more valuable" than $2.

  1. Amazon's Ad Verification program offers select users $2 per month for sharing their traffic data.
  2. It is part of Amazon's Shopper Panel, an invite-only program that offers users financial rewards.
  3. The voluntary program could raise privacy concerns over how Amazon handles customer data.

Amazon is paying some users $2 a month for agreeing to share their traffic data with the retail giant.

The deal is part of the Amazon Shopper Panel, an invite-only program where Amazon customers can earn cash if they submit eligible receipts and fill out surveys.

But how will Amazon handle this sensitive customer data? And what does this mean for the future of digital privacy?

compensating folks for their data in order to obtain consent is the right direction of travel. Still a long way to go though.

They say, "copying is the sincerest form of flattery." It sure looks like Amazon is now of the opinion that they should pay folks to use their data instead of just taking it without consent. That sounds a lot like the mePrism data marketplace.  They have much to improve in their first attempt but the trend seems clear. People have rights and ownership of their personal information and companies and governments need to respect that.

Comments

Kind of a catch-22.. The reality is that we are already letting Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google and others have pretty much unfettered access to our personal data to use their platforms. And, the only way not to give them access, is not to use them. As an example, Android is a Google platform and if you look, you can find your user data. The reality is, they capture everything on your phone, down to every last detail. As an example, it knows when and how often you wake your phone up, which apps you open and use, how you use them and where you go, etc. I for example, can pull up my own activity map and I can see where I was, at any given time, for as long as I have owned an Android phone.

So, with this move, Amazon is being
transparent and compensating for capturing all this data. BUT, at the same time
$2 per month, is chump change compared to what they are actually making off
it... In my opinion, having full unfettered access to our personal data, should
not be a requirement to use a platform. And, Amazon is moving in the right
direction, but lets not be fooled; they are using that data regardless of
paying you.

if it's $2 for every time an ad with my data is shown... then that would be banking...ad showing 10000 times a day at $2...10000X2= 20000 X 30...is that what Amazon meant to say?

Thank you for sharing. What protection for Digital privacy?

Yeah, you want to pay me $2 to invade my privacy?  I think not!