Chris Kirkham and Jeffrey Dastin:
As a Virginia lawmaker, Ibraheem Samirah has studied internet privacy issues and debated how to regulate tech firms’ collection of personal data. Still, he was stunned to learn the full details of the information Amazon.com Inc has collected on him.
The e-commerce giant had more than 1,000 contacts from his phone. It had records of exactly which part of the Quran that Samirah, who was raised as a Muslim, had listened to on Dec. 17 of last year. The company knew every search he had made on its platform, including one for books on “progressive community organizing” and other sensitive health-related inquiries he thought were private.
“Are they selling products, or are they spying on everyday people?” asked Samirah, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Samirah was among the few Virginia legislators who opposed an industry-friendly, Amazon-drafted state privacy bill that passed earlier this year. At Reuters’ request, Samirah asked Amazon to disclose the data it collected on him as a consumer.
The company gathers a vast array of information on its U.S. customers, and it started making that data available to all upon request early last year, after trying and failing to defeat a 2018 California measure requiring such disclosures. (U.S. Amazon customers can obtain their data by filling out a form on Amazon.com.
How much are naming rights for the whole Obama presidency? https://t.co/hypUjAtiVj
— Eric Weinberger (@eric_weinberger) November 22, 2021
Obama is doing this favor to Bezos just as the Teamsters leadership was overthrown in favor of people who want to organize Amazon.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) November 22, 2021
The paradox and tension of all Dem-left politics and elite media discourse runs through Obama's symbolism and the inability to discuss it honestly. https://t.co/Y7V4Ro6G5F