Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/14/amazon_data_hoard/
Amazon 'plans world's biggest personal data stash'
And tries to patent it too
Posted in Music and Media, 14th August 2006 13:03 GMT
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Amazon.com is investing in IP to create the largest database of personal information ever gathered by an online retailer, according to a report in its local paper.
The database would, the Seattle Post Intelligencer suggests (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/280894_amazon10.html), mingle information on sexual orientation and race, as well as purchasing habits.
And to prove it's serious, the newspaper reports, it's patenting the idea.
Patent application 20060178946 (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060178946%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060178946&RS=DN/20060178946) ("Providing gift clustering functionality to assist a user in ordering multiple items for a recipient") was filed last December and published last week, although it has yet to be granted.
The patent application is simply the latest in a long line of database mining techniques for online ordering filed by Amazon.com, and is no more intrusive than many other over-reaching patent applications. Amazon has patented, or attempted to patent, search histories, gift certificates, and customer reviews. In the aftermath of AOL's release of search queries from over half a million users recently, it is however, a lot more topical.
A suggested implementation of Application '946 includes data such as "education levels, genders, income levels, interests, races, ethnicities, religions, occupations, sexual orientations", which could not be accurately inferred from a user's purchasing history, and could only be gained from external sources or information volunteered by the Amazon user.
Amazon told the PI it has no "immediate intention" to create such a database.
Privacy groups in the US last week renewed their calls for search engines and commercial retailers to wipe their databases clean. They were joined (http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2010&Itemid=82) by Sen Edward Markey (D.Ma) who earlier this year tabled legislation to outlaw data retention, as cable companies are already obliged to do.
The bill, HR 4731 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-4731), The Eliminate Warehousing of Consumer Internet Data Act of 2006, has won little support in Congress. ®