My mother often complains that I never seem
to read the books she recommends. “Have
you read that suspense novel I sent you which is set in Japan?”
“No Mum, not yet. I’ve been, uh... busy.”
“Busy doing what?”
”Reading other books.”
Maybe she doesn’t quite understand the kind
of books I like. Maybe it’s not
that. Maybe I prefer to stumble
across great books rather than be pushed towards them. That way, reading them feels like an
unexpected luxury, not a chore.
In any case, satisfying someone with a book
recommendation is difficult. My mother
has seen what I have been reading since I was reading Spot the Dog – “See
Spot. Spot runs. See Spot run.” If even she has difficulty knowing what I
would like to read, then how can Amazon do it?
I wrote a little last week about Audible,
an Amazon company, and their book recommendations to me. It made me think about how they collect data on
their users in order to recommend books to them.
For instance, just before my son was born,
Audible sent me recommendations for books about parenting – Tips for a new
father, How to raise children, etc. How
did they know that I might be interested in such books? I had never read any books about parenting
before, I hadn’t added any to my Audible wish-list, and I hadn’t searched their
database for books about parenting. They
must have gotten the data from a purchase I made on Amazon. My wife ordered some baby nappies or
other baby-related items from my Amazon account. And suddenly Audible, a separate company
owned by Amazon, knows that I might be interested in books about
parenting. Isn’t that a little bit
scary?
I found three different lists of
recommended books that Audible has suggested to me. They were:
Recommendations, based on your previous
purchases;
Recommendations for you inspired by
your wish-list;
And Recommendations inspired by your
searches.
Be careful what you buy, and even what you
search for on Amazon. They’re watching
carefully!
And don’t think that it is just a computer
which is making a profile of you. The
computers are operated by humans. And if
you annoy those humans enough, they can use that collected data
against you.
In December 2017 it was revealed that a
British man had gotten very strange book recommendations from Amazon. He had complained to Amazon’s help desk about
a package delivery. Then on the same day
he got five emails from Amazon with recommendations for books about death and
suicide. Their titles included, “Death,”
“Follow you home,” and “Suicide’s an option.”
Amazon later confirmed that an employee had misused the customer’s
data and had sent the emails. They
offered the customer a 50 pound gift token as compensation.
Audible’s book recommendations for me were
not very helpful. They included a lot of
books I have already read, but didn’t buy on Amazon. They also recommended Harry Potter. I’ve no idea why. Maybe they know that I haven’t bought it, and
think that anyone who hasn’t read that book is a fool. Or maybe when you put all of the collected
data on me into a computer programme, it adds up to Harry Potter.
I think I’ll read that suspense novel set
in Japan instead. Thanks, Mum.
Vocabulary:
to stumble across – to find by chance
a chore – a bothersome task; something you
have to do
a purchase – the act of buying something
a nappy – something worn by babies because
they cannot yet use a toilet
to be inspired by something – to get
creative ideas from something
to annoy someone – to make someone slightly
angry
to use something against someone – to use
something as a tool to harm someone
to misuse – to use something incorrectly or
improperly
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