[ad_1]
I recently encountered the strangest thing. I ordered some groceries on Amazon Fresh. At checkout, Amazon recommends more things you might want to buy, usually related to your purchase. But this time, Amazon offered “treatment for high cholesterol” along with a link to an Amazon One Medical consultation and a link to prescription medication.
This is weird because my doctor and my wife are the only ones who know my cholesterol numbers. They are pretty good too! But there are definitely data points, including my age, my food preferences, and my past purchases, and even News reports I read elsewhere on the Internetwhich may mean I am suitable for taking statinsa cholesterol-lowering medication that Amazon recommended to me. While I’m used to Amazon recommending books I might like or cleaning products I might buy again, it feels scary to be recommended prescription drugs.
The Amazon recommendations I saw on this particular grocery order could have been completely random. The next time I ordered groceries, the app recommended bacon instead of statins. At first, I thought it might be a test or a mistake by Amazon, but when I asked about the reasoning behind these recommendations, the company confirmed that it was a feature, not a bug.
“Amazon displays products that may be related or similar to the item currently being purchased,” Amazon spokeswoman Samantha Kruse said in an email. “Protected health information provided by Amazon Health services, including Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy, is not used to market or promote general products in the broader Amazon store.”
In other words, Amazon might use your purchase information to recommend prescription drugs, but it won’t use your protected medical information to sell you something else.
Seeing Amazon targeting my health status makes me aware of the disturbing amount of information Amazon collects from my online activities—and Amazon is a healthcare companywhich can collect a large amount of data and push customers to receive corresponding treatment.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Amazon holds a ton of data about us and what we buy. But in the past four years, Amazon has launched its own pharmacy business and acquired primary care startup One Medical, which connects Amazon customers directly to doctors.
Clearly, Amazon has big ambitions in healthcare. We don’t yet know how this will change everyone’s Amazon shopping experience — but maybe my recent experience was a preview.
Before I get too excited about Amazon Doctors, let’s take a closer look at just how much the retail giant knows about its customers, and how it knows it.
Amazon is known as the “everything store” where you can buy everything From battery acid Um, StatinsLike most websites, Amazon also collects data about your activity on the site, such as what you buy, what you don’t buy, and what you’re considering buying. It creates a profile based on those interests and uses algorithms to recommend items you might want to buy next. Amazon Proud of these algorithms.(The total amount of data Amazon collects about you This goes way beyond your shopping habits, by the way..
Then Amazon’s booming advertising business. The company’s advertising department Current competitors The Google-Meta duopoly has dominated online advertising for years, in part because Amazon has a lot of data What people buy, watch, where they live, etc. Amazon explain It uses “cookies, pixels, IP addresses, and other technologies” to target these ads, which is why you can find Amazon tracking bugs on the site. It’s everywhere on the InternetFor example, these trackers can know if I look up health-related questions on WebMD and use that data to tailor recommendations on Amazon. Crystal Wilsonprofessor of computer science at Northeastern University.
“There could be Amazon trackers lurking on the page, monitoring your behavior, which is why you might be getting these weird ads,” Wilson told me.
Or, more likely, it could just be a pattern in my shopping history. The groceries I ordered that triggered the cholesterol medication recommendation included shredded cheese, salsa, tomatoes, flour tortillas—and especially ground chicken. What does that mean? After all, it’s a heart-healthy alternative to ground beef, and taco night is coming up. I also purchased the fat free version of Coffee Mate French Vanilla coffee creamer which tastes amazing and has no cholesterol. But do these purchases make me an obvious target for an Amazon One Medical cholesterol consultation? And, in any case, should my Amazon purchases be tied to Amazon’s healthcare offerings?
Amazon One Medical is a relatively new service. Amazon acquired One Medical 2022And combine it with Amazon Clinic telemedicine service This early summerPrime members can now get health care through Amazon One Medical for just $99 per year. Prime members can get discounted medicine for just $5 per year Using Amazon Pharmacy RxPassAlthough I am a Prime member, I am not an Amazon One Medical customer and do not use Amazon Pharmacy. So given my choice of healthy burritos, the algorithm might infer that as someone who is proactive about their healthcare needs, I might be interested in Amazon’s healthcare offerings.
When Amazon acquired One Medical, Federal Trade Commission and Other The move raised concerns about Amazon’s move into the healthcare industry and what that might mean for sensitive health data. Around this time, The Washington Post reported that customers Signed some health privacy rights All of this makes me even more uneasy about whether it’s legal for Amazon to use my complex purchasing history to sell me targeted health products.
As far as I know, Amazon can. HIPAA is a federal law that protects health privacy. Narrower than most people thinkIt only applies to health care providers, insurers and companies that manage medical records. HIPAA requires these entities to protect your data when it is transmitted, but it doesn’t apply to purchases you make on Amazon, said Suzanne Bernstein, a legal fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
“This context is especially important as Amazon and other companies continue to collect, process and use vast amounts of consumer health data that is not covered by HIPAA,” Bernstein said. “American consumers are not necessarily aware of all of this, and it’s not their fault.”
In the absence of any federal protections, some states have passed their own data privacy laws. California Perhaps the most famous Washington state changes the conversation about health data privacy by giving citizens more control over their data. The My Health My Data Act was enacted Last year. Bernstein explained that the law defines consumer health data more broadly, so any information about a consumer’s past, present, or future health status is included. This could mean Washington residents are entitled to certain privacy rights when products purchased from Amazon indicate a health condition. It is unclear how the law would apply to Amazon, which is headquartered in Washington.
I’m still thinking about my recent purchase of statins on Amazon, and I’m left with more questions than answers. Does Amazon plan to regularly offer prescription drug recommendations to its customers? Am I the only one who finds this more invasive than convenient? Or does Amazon know what people really want, even if it feels a little creepy at first?
I don’t know the answers to any of these questions. But one thing I do know: Heart-healthy chicken taco night is a hit.
A version of this story also appeared in the Vox Technology newsletter. Register Here So you don’t miss the next one!
[ad_2]
Source link
