Amazon Spamhaus Redux

Apparently, Amazon is up to their old tricks again. Money must be tight. After many years of being an Amazon customer, now I feel I have to drop them like a Bad Habit, all down to the fact that they appear to be spamming again. Maybe they thought I wouldn't notice.

I have had an Amazon account for some time - and when possible, I always set my 'preferences' on any commercial website to include only being contacted for things like invoices, shipping dates, stuff like that. I never want to be spammed, not even by people I like. If I want to buy a product, here's a hint - I'll go and buy it.

Oh, it's not technically spam, because we have an existing relationship, right? Well, maybe technically. But it's spam just the same. And ironic, too!



Hope you can read that, I had to shrink it some - for those who can't, it is an advertisement for a book on PRIVACY! Hehehe, the irony is so sharp it hurts, dude.

So, since this was really truly Amazon and not a typical spambag, I actually clicked on the link provided (normally a big no-no with spam, people), and checked out what they report as my 'privacy settings'. Please note that I didn't make these choices, at least not that I can recall - and I'd have had to been into the sauce pretty heavily to have done it without recalling it. Apparently, these are some fun settings that Amazon has come up with FOR ME:



OK, so I deactivated the choices I never made and pressed save. Not a big deal. But I don't like being made to do it, and so now I will do business with:

http://www.abebooks.com/

Simple, Amazon - you spam, you lose. You change my settings to make it seem that I agreed to get your spam - or invented a new bunch of settings and decided that the default setting should be "on".

Does any of this matter? No, not really. All my so-called privacy is most likely with my credit information - in some prison in Fujian Province in China, or a boiler-room technical support operation in Bangalore, India. But my conceit is that I have some level of control over my life and my privacy. Screw with my cherished illusions at your own risk. Bye, bye, Amazon!

Later,

Wiggy