by Kim D.
As first reported in UK's Independent, Amazon's algorithm that makes helpful suggestions of what customers might like to buy based on past purchases needs quite a bit of adjustment. The report claims the following:
This basically means that some users had bought at least one component used in home-made bomb making so Amazon suggested the rest of the ingredients:
If users click on Thermite, for example, which is a pyrotechnic composition of metal powder, the website links to two other items, which constitute the basic bomb-making materials.
For the most part, my recommendations are pretty tame. I recently bought dog food because our pup is on a special diet and due to flooding issues, our vet is temporarily out of business. However, because
I have Amazon Prime account, in this past month I have noticed a slew of emails making recommendations for me and not based on past purchases.
Amazon Prime was sending me friendly reminders of things I have searched for at Amazon, like an Rtic Cooler, or tons of suggestions of what I might like to listen to, read on the Kindle, or watch on my Fire Stick. After learning about about Amazon's creepy recommendations, I went to my account and under "Emails, Alerts, and Ads," I disabled and unsubscribed to all to stop the bombardment of emails I'd been receiving. I recommend you review your account because I noticed that I was magically subscribed to receive emails from 71 Amazon departments, something I never consciously did.
