Will Amazon’s customers go for its pay-for-data scheme?
Amazon.com is offering to pay some of its customers for access to their data in efforts to improve ad targeting.
The e-tail juggernaut is offering $2 dollars per month to a select group of users who choose to participate in the company’s invite-only ad verification program, according to a Business Insider article.
Amazon will track what ads participants see as well as where and when they see them. The company is looking to better hone its ad personalization and ensure that ads more closely reflect previous purchases. The program is being launched as an add-on to the Amazon Shopper Panel, which pays participants $10 per month for uploading 10 receipts of purchases made at non-Amazon retailers.
Both the low price point and the potential security risk drew criticism from privacy hawk Mark Weinstein, who in an Entrepreneur column said that the data Amazon was asking for was worth closer to $20 per month. He expressed skepticism about major corporations securing collected data, given the track record of data breaches.
The idea of users being reasonably compensated for the use of their personal data has grown more popular in recent years. Andrew Yang, who ran in the last Democratic presidential primary, argued that digital data should be considered personal property with particular rights attached and that companies should be legally bound to pay users for the value generated through the use of the data.
California Governor Gavin Newsom likewise floated the concept of a “data dividend” in California, by which customers would be given financial restitution for the use of their data.
Amazon’s work to improve its ad targeting is in keeping with the company’s increasing reliance on ad revenue.
Over the last year, Amazon made almost $36 billion dollars from advertising versus just over $34 billion from all of its subscription programs combined, including its hallmark service Amazon Prime, according to a Gizmodo article. Amazon’s advertising profits spiked 51 percent in 2021 and have continued to go up. Some have argued that the user experience on the website is declining as a result, with ads being served to customers in place of the most useful product search results.
- Amazon is offering customers $2 per month for letting the company monitor the traffic on their phones – Business Insider
- Amazon Makes More Money From Ads Than Prime – Gizmodo
- ‘Your Data Is Worth Way More Than This’: Amazon Will Pay You $2 A Month To Track Your Ad Data – Entrepreneur
- Should companies have to pay you to use your personal data – RetailWire
- Should customers just be paid for their data? – RetailWire