Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Amazon”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '[Article] <You have reached the clipping limit for this item> – Alex'
- kudos:It never occurred to me that you could use a Kindle in such a “de-Amazoned” way… and it also infuriates me that Amazon still interferes this much. link to “[Article] – Alex”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Real Monsters of Street Level Surveillance'
- kudos:This is cute, but also Ring doorbells are seriously the thing that scares me most on Halloween. link to “The Real Monsters of Street Level Surveillance”
slides for guest lecture on platform perspectives, digital labor, and the digital divide
- kudos:A few months ago, some colleagues reached out to ask if I would be willing to record a guest lecture for our library science program’s LIS 600: Information in Society. In particular, they were interested in having me record something for a week on the digital divide. I am conversant on that topic, but it’s not an area of specialty for me, so I was unsure about it until I realized that some of the readings for that week touch on topics like platform design that I am really interested in through my work on social media communities.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used To Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers - Slashdot'
- kudos:This sucks on so many levels. link to “Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used To Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers - Slashdot”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'All Bad Bosses at Amazon Are Now Named ‘Wayne’'
- kudos:Funny meme, depressing reality. link to “All Bad Bosses at Amazon Are Now Named ‘Wayne’”
do you want to be good or to be optimized?
- kudos:This Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic from yesterday spoke to me at a deep level: My first thoughts went to generative AI, an area in which I feel like a fetishization of optimization is crowding out really important questions of what is good. As I put it in a university survey earlier today, there are undeniable benefits to the use of AI tools, but there are important questions as to who benefits.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Turkers Who Train AI Say They’re Locked Out of Their Work and Money'
- kudos:Helpful reminder that it’s low-paid, underappreciated workers who contribute to AI as much as high-paid programmers and household-name executives. link to “Amazon Turkers Who Train AI Say They’re Locked Out of Their Work and Money”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Blue Origin Builds $8 Billion Barrel For Jeff Bezos To Ride Over Niagara Falls'
- kudos:This made me laugh out loud while reheating my leftovers for lunch. link to “Blue Origin Builds $8 Billion Barrel For Jeff Bezos To Ride Over Niagara Falls”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink | WIRED'
- kudos:Don’t know how I missed this story yesterday, but what the heck? Like the article says, nothing particularly new revealed by these stunts, but it’s still a compelling critique of Amazon. link to “Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink | WIRED”
whose voices does ClassDojo prioritize?
- kudos:This morning, I read an excellent piece by Lam Thuy Vo at The Markup expressing concern about how services like Amazon’s Ring cameras can distort police priorities and perpetuate bias. Here’s a good summary passage: As a reporter, I’ve always been interested in systems that disadvantage some people—when it comes to policing, they are often Black or Latino—while prioritizing the wishes of a smaller, much more powerful subset—often affluent White folks.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup'
- kudos:Public-private surveillance is the worst of both worlds. Ring is creepy. link to “Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Sellers say Amazon undercuts their prices, charges high fees : NPR'
- kudos:Amazon: also the worst. link to “Sellers say Amazon undercuts their prices, charges high fees : NPR”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon reportedly used a secret algorithm to jack up prices - The Verge'
- kudos:What a gross idea. link to “Amazon reportedly used a secret algorithm to jack up prices - The Verge”
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After leaving our local indie bookstore, I realized how appropriate it was to spend some money there the same day the FTC goes after Amazon.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge'
- kudos:Amazon is too big, and while I’m not a policy expert, I welcome government efforts to keep it in check. link to “FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon | Ars Technica'
- kudos:I’m not thrilled about AI’s ability to do this, but let’s be clear: Amazon is as much to blame here, and I like them even less. link to ‘Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Someone Has to Deliver Your Packages in This Scorching Heat | WIRED'
- kudos:So many of our conveniences depend on someone else doing work we wouldn’t want to do ourselves. link to ‘Someone Has to Deliver Your Packages in This Scorching Heat | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED'
- kudos:Hear hear. Ring is a creepy company, and we shouldn’t support them. link to ‘Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for How to Resist Amazon and Why (Updated & Expanded), by Danny Caine
- kudos:Look, this is the kind of book that I bought knowing already that I’d agree with its thesis, so maybe you shouldn’t read my review of it. Nonetheless, I think Caine does an excellent job of bringing together many of the arguments against Amazon. This company is bad news, and while it’s hard to escape it entirely, I think the world would be a better place if more of us did less to support it.
'licensed, not sold, to you'
- kudos:As I’ve blogged about a couple of times recently, I’m currently reading R. Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions, a graphic novel adaptation of the 2015 iTunes Terms and Conditions document, which no one ever reads. I was struck (if not surprised) by something stated explicitly in the document, which appears on p. 59 of Sikoryak’s volume: The software products made available through the Mac App Store and App Store (collectively, the “App Store Products”) are licensed, not sold, to you.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Drivers Are Still Peeing in Bottles'
- kudos:Someone’s paying the price for the convenience of shopping on Amazon. link to ‘Amazon Drivers Are Still Peeing in Bottles’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything'
- kudos:I missed the vertical integration aspect of this in earlier reporting I’ve read. It makes this story even worse. link to ‘‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''Ring Nation' Is Amazon's Reality Show for Our Surveillance Dystopia'
- kudos:Such a bad idea. Normalizing Ring won’t make it any better—only worse. link to ‘‘Ring Nation’ Is Amazon’s Reality Show for Our Surveillance Dystopia’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why none of my books are available on Audible | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com'
- kudos:Doctorow convinced me years ago that Audible was terrible, but here, he showed me just how bad they are. link to ‘Why none of my books are available on Audible | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com’
schools' Acceptable Use Policies and R. Sikoryak's 'Terms and Conditions'
- kudos:Kiddo starts at a new school on Wednesday, and I’ve been putting off signing the Acceptable Use Policy and Chromebook Policy because I want to read them carefully. I don’t know how much I can do about anything that I’m really concerned with, but I’m a tech researcher when I’m not being kiddo’s dad, so I feel an obligation to be informed and raise a fuss when something is fussworthy.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Buys Roomba Company, Will Now Map Inside of Your House'
- kudos:Some good points about how Amazon owning Roomba is scarier than just Roomba existing on its own—even if I didn’t realize that Roomba was creepily mapping houses. link to ‘Amazon Buys Roomba Company, Will Now Map Inside of Your House’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Buying Roomba Maker iRobot for $1.7 Billion - WSJ'
- kudos:Amazon keeps getting bigger, and I don’t think that’s for the better. link to ‘Amazon Buying Roomba Maker iRobot for $1.7 Billion - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Admits Giving Police Ring Footage Without Consent'
- kudos:It’s concerning to see private surveillance prop up public surveillance like this. link to ‘Amazon Admits Giving Police Ring Footage Without Consent’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Sony Removes 100s Of Movies Bought Through PS Store | Techdirt'
- kudos:This is why I’m trying to buy more physical copies of things—or at least DRM-free stuff. I have lots of regrets about the size of my Kindle library, for example. link to ‘You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Sony Removes 100s Of Movies Bought Through PS Store | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Senator Declares Amazon Ring's Audio Surveillance Capabilities 'Threaten the Public' | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:I’ve been plenty spooked by Ring’s video capabilities, but apparently I haven’t been worried enough about its audio surveillance. link to ‘Senator Declares Amazon Ring’s Audio Surveillance Capabilities ‘Threaten the Public’ | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader'
- kudos:Amazon already has too big a footprint here. Don’t feel great about this. link to ‘KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader’
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Grumpy about DRM today. So much content I’ve purchased but am forever beholden to Amazon to access.
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Amazon Paid for a High School Course. Here’s What They Teach.'
- kudos:So much ugh. Big Amazon presence here in KY, so wonder when we’ll start to see this. link to ‘Amazon Paid for a High School Course. Here’s What They Teach.’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Amazon is retiring Alexa — no, not that one - The Verge'
- kudos:Why shut down Alexa rankings??? link to ‘Amazon is retiring Alexa — no, not that one - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The Amazon Privacy Nightmare. “What you search for, what you buy… | by Micah Sifry | Nov, 2021 | OneZero'
- kudos:Very scary stuff here. link to ‘The Amazon Privacy Nightmare. “What you search for, what you buy… | by Micah Sifry | Nov, 2021 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | Don’t Let Amazon Eat the Film Industry - The New York Times'
- kudos:The more pies Amazon has its fingers in, the more concerning it becomes. link to ‘Opinion | Don’t Let Amazon Eat the Film Industry - The New York Times’