Whenever I go out to dinner party with a crowd of admirer , and we rive the baulk , multiple people wind up throw in those heavy , slate - Zane Grey credit card bearing Amazon ’s smiley arrow .
Almost everyone I know has the Amazon Prime credit card because it arrive with a slayer reward program , especially if you ’re an Amazon Prime member — five points for every dollar you spend at Amazon and Whole Foods , and two points for most clam spent elsewhere . There arelots of “ co - branded ” bill out there , for other retailers , all the airline , hotel , even mutation teams — but given how often we ’re all grease one’s palms stuff on Amazon , which is approximate to account for 50 percent of all on-line commerce in America , we ’d be brainsick not to use it . Many of us apply the Amazon lineup for all of our purchase , on and off Amazon . But what ’s the cost to our privateness ?
For an experiment I recently did , cutting Amazon out of my life , I wanted to encounter out what precisely Amazon learns about me when I use the Amazon Rewards Visa Signature identity card from Chase . I looked at my cardholder agreement and its attendant secrecy policy , but neither said , so I asked both Amazon and Chase Bank . Disturbingly , neither company would tell me , exactly .
the great unwashed vex about how much Google and Facebook know about them , but Amazon is increasingly sucking up unbelievable amounts of data about individuals , too , such thatit knows if you ’re friends with the personwhose book or product you ’re reviewing . Amazon already knows what we ’re buy on Amazon and in Whole Foods . What if it knows what we ’re buying everywhere else too ? Knowing what everyone buys every day is powerful for foretell their future behaviour and further monetise them ( asother tech giants well make love ) . Amazon could use brainstorm into what citizenry are buying from other business to better vie with those business and increase its stranglehold on the American economy .
So what does Amazon learn about me when I use this add-in ?
Amazon ’s interpreter , Andrea Ruge , hop on the phone with me to infer exactly what I desire to know and said she would get back to me . Then , after I sent a couple of electronic mail enquire if she had information for me , she responded , “ Apologies for the postponement on this . I do n’t have anything to partake re : your Chase card question below . ”
I was surprised and annoyed that Amazon could n’t answer a question that ’s not peculiarly difficult or excessive : What does Amazon learn about hoi polloi who have Amazon Prime credit plug-in ?
Chase is the issue depository financial institution , so it isthe controlling company . I sent the camber ’s representative , Mary Jane Rogers , a few electronic mail before I got a reply . She get off me boilerplate privateness materials about the cards the coin bank issues and apologized . “ Sorry , this is as specific as I am capable to portion out , ” she wrote in an email that left me feel even more spooked about what Amazon knows about me .
Carl Rogers say this would be “ of most interest ” to me and glue it into the email :
I enquire what category fits a “ co - brand spouse , ” which is Amazon ’s official designation . Was it an “ affiliate ” that get “ data about your transactions and experiences , ” personal entropy whose “ sharing ” can not be define ?
“ Yes , I ’m confident it ’s that one , ” Rogers write back .
So I emailed Ruge again require if it was true that Amazon was getting information about my “ transaction and experience , ” which I film to mean everything I buy with the card and how much I spend , giving Amazon insight into people ’s disbursal alfresco of Amazon .
“ Since we do n’t remark on hearsay and speculation , there ’s not a ton I can render here , ” Ruge wrote back . “ However , I can tell you that we are not an ‘ affiliate ’ Chase [ sic ] and these details are inaccurate . Unfortunately , that ’s all I can apportion at this time . ”
Okay but that ’s what Chase , Amazon ’s ostensible partner , had told me . I wrote back , expressing my frustration .
justifiedly pointingto the definition of “ affiliate ” on Chase ’s page , which defines it as a company have or controlled by JPMorgan Chase , Ruge said that ’s not what Amazon is . She said my conjecture about what information Amazon was acquire were inaccurate . “ Unfortunately I can not share anything beyond that , ” she ended her email .
I ’ve had an promiscuous fourth dimension get information out ofa undercover agent agency . I turn to expert on credit cards for avail . They were all stumped , too .
The National Consumer Law Center say data - share agreements between companies that issue quotation cards together are private , and that only the companies could tell me . Other experts said the same matter .
“ The selective information sharing between AMZ and JPM would be a characteristic of their contractual agreement with each other and not something I would know , ” said the U.S. Pirg ’s consumer directorEd Mierzwinski .
Ted Rossman , an analyst at Creditcards.com , was also stumped . “ I suspect there is a mickle of data that they are mine from this , ” he speculated .
Rossman point me to a blogger , the Finance Buff , who , he say , “ used to sour in co - branded card , ” who wrote that “ the co - branding partner also gets aggregated data point from the issuer on the customer ’ demographic and their shopping behavior . The datum help the partner commercialise its products . ”
But when I reached out to the Finance Buff , Harry Sit , he , too , had no mind what data Amazon gets .
It was a very disappointing hunt for an answer , but there ’s a clear takeout : If you have the Amazon Prime Chase card and you ’re upset about Amazon getting more data about you , only utilise it to buy thing from Amazon and Whole Foods . Amazon knows what you ’re grease one’s palms there either means .
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