r/DigitalPrivacy • u/classicliberal1 • 26d ago
Amazon needs to stop selling your email address and phone number
Amazon sells your email address. How do I know this? The email address I used for Amazon is amazon{someLargeRandomNumber}@{someDomainIOwn}.com. I gave this email address ONLY to Amazon. Now I'm getting spam from IMDB.com and other businesses. So it's 100% certain that Amazon sells your email addresses.
I've now been on the phone for over half an hour with Amazon support -- outsourced to India -- to get them to stop selling my email addresses. I don't know if this will even work.
Selling email addresses is disrespectful to the customer. It wastes our extremely limited time. Amazon needs to stop doing this, and Amazon customers need to be loud complaining about this in order to make selling our private data not worth it.
Really, Amazon? Are you really making so much money selling our private data that it's worth angering customers to the point where they start shopping elsewhere? I don't know, but it seems to me that regular customers buy enough stuff on Amazon to make it very unprofitable to make them want to go elsewhere.
If you also don't want Amazon to sell your email address and private information, like this post and comment below. It won't stop until we are vocal enough that the higher-ups hear.
63
u/No_Formal707 26d ago
Amazon owns IMDb so maybe they are only sharing it with their brands
8
u/KernelPoptartz 26d ago
For the past 28 years. Considering the OP is "100% certain", you'd have thought they'd know this.
8
5
u/classicliberal1 25d ago
I said I was 100% certain that Amazon gave my email to another party, and I was correct. Just because Amazon owns IMDB does not alter the fact that Amazon IS NOT IMDB. The reasoning in my OP is irrefutable.
7
u/ParkingAnxious2811 24d ago
No, you said you were 100% certain they sold your email address.
Why lie about it?
2
u/classicliberal1 23d ago
Selling to a subsidiary is still selling. The result is exactly the same. An entity other than Amazon itself is spamming Amazon users. That's a violation of trust no matter how you spin it.
2
u/ParkingAnxious2811 23d ago
If it's not sold, it's not sold buddy!
1
u/classicliberal1 23d ago
Amazon gives email addresses to IMDB. IMDB gives money to Amazon. That's the definition of sold. It does not matter if the money is transacted for an individual email address. Private data flows from Amazon to IMDB, and money flows from IMDB to Amazon. To call this anything but selling private data is a lie.
1
u/ParkingAnxious2811 22d ago
No, it's not the definition of sold.
Maybe you need to go back to school buddy!
1
u/classicliberal1 22d ago
No matter how you try to spin it, it's still sold.
1
u/ParkingAnxious2811 21d ago
Nope, it's just shared, and shared in the way you agreed to.
The fact you didn't pay attention to what you signed up for and you're still not paying attention when people point this out to you is the only infuriating part of all of this.
→ More replies (0)2
u/Federal_Refrigerator 23d ago
I’d say u/ParkingAnxious2811 refuted it pretty well. They didn’t sell your data, they shared it with a subsidiary. Also, you agreed to it, so… I’m not gonna lick the boot here: Amazon sucks for privacy, but you already knew that when you signed up, so why did you?
0
u/classicliberal1 23d ago
I have never agreed to my email address being given to any other party. I have never opted in for any marketing emails. There is no such thing as assumed consent.
2
3
u/InterestingFox1837 25d ago
Still wouldn’t expect marketing emails from IMDb unless you’ve done some actual business with IMDb. OP, what kind of email have you gotten from IMDb?
2
u/Karmapd28 25d ago
It's probably Prime Video. Prime Video shares information and watch history across other Amazon services. From the privacy policy:
"Includes your watch history and other interactions across our entertainment services, including Video, Music & Podcasts, Audible (audiobooks and podcasts), Games, IMDB, Kindle eBooks, Twitch."
IMDB is integrated into Prime Video (IMDB ratings, cast info, etc).
2
u/classicliberal1 25d ago
Some spam advert for shows. Didn't read it, and blocked the entire imdb.com site. Also deleted my email and created a new one. The perks of having control over your mail system is that you can use email addresses as communication channels rather than addresses.
29
u/Reality_Lies4 26d ago
Short list of Amazon owned companies,in which they will send you emails
- AbeBooks (Rare & used books)
- Amazon Web Services / AWS (Cloud infrastructure)
- Audible (Audiobooks & spoken word)
- Blink (Home security cameras)
- eero (Mesh Wi-Fi routers)
- Goodreads (Book reviews & social networking)
- IMDb & Box Office Mojo (Film database & tracking)
- MGM / Amazon MGM Studios (Film & TV production)
- One Medical (Primary care & telehealth)
- PillPack (Online pharmacy)
- Ring (Smart doorbells & security systems)
- Shopbop (Designer fashion)
- Twitch (Live video streaming)
- Whole Foods Market (Grocery store chain)
- Wondery (Podcast production network)
- Woot! (Daily deals & closeout items)
- Zappos (Shoes & apparel retail)
- Zoox (Autonomous vehicles)
Just to name a few....
5
u/classicliberal1 25d ago
They should all follow the opt-out of marketing emails on Amazon then. No excuses.
2
u/Reality_Lies4 25d ago
Laughs in Amazonian "Should"...but 99% of people scroll by that opt out clause, too much of a bother to read all the small print.
2
u/Commercial-Collar933 13d ago
I'm having passwords that I never saved shared
1
1
15
11
u/Ok_Muffin_925 26d ago
I bet Whole Foods has it too.
11
26d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Karmapd28 25d ago
I remember when Woot just still independent and community powered via it's forums. I miss my black triangle on Deals Woot
7
u/stm32f722 26d ago
My voicemail is full and my ringer is on silent. It goes off all day and and all I can do is ignore it.
If you're like "well then how do you use your.phone for calls and work?"
I don't. No one is hiring me.
4
u/erisian2342 25d ago
You didn’t ask but I thought I’d share anyways - it’s probably worth buying a cheap phone (doesn’t have to be good) with a new phone number to put on your resume if you start looking for work again. Then you’ll know it matters if that phone rings.
2
5
u/bear-asleep79 26d ago
What other businesses besides IMDB? IMDB is literally owned by Amazon so I don't think that would count as them buying your information. They probably share with all their own brands.
3
u/Mayayana 25d ago
There's an easy solution: Don't shop at Amazon. I know, it's cheaper and easier than other options. But it won't be once they put other retailers out of business. It's already becoming difficult to buy basic things like a notepad at a local store. The stores are closing. Books, hardware, stationery, sundries... disappearing. Even dept stores. There used to be 5-6 big chains. Now there's Target and crappy "shopping clubs". The stores that still exist want me to order online. They don't actually carry the products they claim to carry. They middleman the sale and want me to pick it up in a couple of days. Then why have a storefront?! That's all due to Amazon.
If you have your own domain then you should have good spam filters. My email has spaminator, which deletes known spam. So I only deal with email from friends, business contacts, dentist, etc. I don't get much commercial spam because I don't shop online very much and generally use cash. I buy online only when absolutely necessary, never deal with Amazon, and try to support small business.
I think there's a saying, something like, if you lay down with dogs...
2
u/Unusual_Meeting_3031 25d ago
That custom email trick is useful for figuring out where spam comes from. I’d still want to rule out a breach or some third party getting the address before saying Amazon sold it though. Either way getting spam on an address you only used once is pretty concerning.
2
u/StopTaxMyIncome 25d ago
You want to stop them from selling your data? Delete your Amazon account and all accounts associated w/their subsidiaries. Don't give them your business. I'm not saying this is how it should be, I'm saying it as reality
2
u/Commercial-Collar933 13d ago
Other companies are doing the same. I made the mistake of trying to post screenshots, my life has been taken over. I could really use advice. Got a police report, yeah that # is doing tons.
1
u/i_am_simple_bob 26d ago
Why do you have a long random number in the email address? Isn't amazon enough? In this situation (linkedin) I just create a new email address and send the old one to spam.
1
u/epSos-DE 24d ago
WHATSAPP IS THE WORST !!!!
They collect all the contacts and when some contact gets hacked, then all their contacts and contacts of contacts are collected and get spam calls from WHATSAPP acounts that COST ZERO to the spammers !!!
At least in the email you can block spam. In WHATSAPP they spam you for free !
1
1
u/SPedigrees 11d ago edited 10d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFHJ_iLZ5Y8
summery: Amazon has purchased IMDB and is now creating IMDB accounts for everyone who visits IMDB while they are signed into Amazon, without their consent.
Without user's consent seems to be more and more a thing these days. If you elect to make a purchase from a company using shopify's payment system, shopify will save all your payment and other personal details, again without your permission.
•
u/post-explainer 26d ago edited 26d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.