I’m not sure how I feel about this and wonder exactly what it means to us in our present and future web-play.
Reading one of my regular stops, Jane at Asymmetrical Information, I noticed the Amazon ad module on the right. It appears thus:
Johnny Depp caught my eye (I ain’t dead yet!). Then I looked at the other three items: Bellow, Upgrading PCs, and Hacking Movable Type and became a bit suspicious. I realize that as a regular customer of theirs Amazon not only knows me well enough to know my recent selections, interests, and possible future buys, they provide perfect customer service by keeping all this information available on their website–no matter where I click from. Okay, cookies and all, I can dig it and frankly, it’s kind of nice that I don’t have to remind them of my tastes.
But to show up automatically on a site other than theirs? Is this in fact what’s happening, changing Jane Galt’s website to suit me?
And as an Amazon customer yourself, do you see something different than what I put down here? The Privacy Notice at the bottom of the ad (above) does tell a tale.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology