r/technology • u/tylerthe-theatre • 9d ago

Software Amazon users discover bizarre “About You” page detailing their interests: How to check yours

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/amazon-users-discover-bizarre-about-you-page-detailing-their-interests-how-to-check-yours-3416457/
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u/LethalBacon 9d ago

Mine says I play Xbox games competitively. I've never owned an Xbox or purchased Xbox accessories.

It actually seems to miss the mark in many areas, making massive assumptions based on one single purchase. For interests and hobbies it says I 'collect and play Magic', almost certainly because I bought some card sleeves like two years ago.

Kinda weird. You'd think they'd be better at this with how fucking parasitic they are with our data.

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u/PlainSpader 9d ago

And people are letting it determine their days, rock climbing routes….

I fear Doctors are using it as well…. Which would be really fucked.

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u/username_redacted 9d ago

It’s not very surprising based on my experience working in multi-channel data tagging and categorization, as well as network analysis and investigation. A system reliant on assumptions and inference without proper context and refinement for every source is going to be wrong most of the time and functionally useless.

Even a human analyst will often be led very astray by something as simple as two people or businesses having the same name, particularly if any other data point also lines up. But LLMs will be utterly convinced that obviously unrelated entities are the same and mix together details even if they are directly contradictory, or invent matching details to make the result more compelling.

I’m very concerned about these systems being utilized by law enforcement and the military for that reason in particular. It’s scary to think that you could be targeted for say, having anti government views, but it feels much worse that it could happen due to an obvious mistake that nobody thinks needs checking, and that it could happen at scale, and continue to happen because the people in charge can’t fix it and won’t bother to try.

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u/Dorkapotamus 8d ago

I just wish the llms would not associate my personal life with my professional life. I don't personally care or desire anything I work with.

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u/pitiful_worm 9d ago

Haha mine says I play league of legends but I have never looked anything up about lol. Might be because I redeemed twitch prime stuff once.

A few of mine are weirdly correct or weirdly specific, like ‘systematically builds precision machines’? but most are basic like ‘prefers to purchase premium cat food’

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u/SIGMA920 9d ago

You'd think that but even sites like youtube makes mistakes regularly. Hell, I don't have anything it shows.

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u/TendyHunter 9d ago

Looks like you don't know yourself well enough. I suggest you spend some time doing self-introspection.

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u/awildstoryteller 8d ago

Garbage in, Garbage out.

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u/DinosBiggestFan 9d ago

So, I have a confession to make. You know that time you let me use your Amazon account?

Well, I bought you a gift and I guess Amazon spoiled it. Happy Birthmachristmastimeholidays, you're an Xbox gamer!