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Comment by neogodless | Hacker News Reader

I'm in the weird position where, we are family planning, but (to our knowledge) unsuccessful, but started getting a series of emails from Amazon congratulating us and offering up suggestions like vitamins, baby registry and, of course, housecleaning services w/ discounts available.

(The first email was, to put it lightly, premature. Now we got one that says "week one", and it could be right, or not. We don't know yet.)

These emails puzzle me, because I pored over my shopping history, and I can't find any indicator that would tip off their algorithm.

But I do get the idea of trying to sell things to expectant mothers. Such as convenience services.

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Have you been shagging in a room with an Alexa?

That's actually a good idea. I mean, it's a terrible idea, but certainly one way they could do this. But, alas, no. We don't own an Alexa speaker, though we do own a Fire HD. That, however, isn't allowed in the shagging room.

ETA: Too late to edit, but the point I'm trying to make is that Amazon is able to gather data on potential customers, and it's possible, even likely, that when you get pregnant, you start to think "paying for housecleaning" is worth it, and the combination of knowing if this is true, and being able to predict (or know) when someone is pregnant through their data mining and algorithms gives them a position to advertise directly to newly expectant mothers with these housecleaning services. This is, obviously, a big advantage over their competitors.

"How Companies Learn Your Secrets" (2012)

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits....

Amazon probably sees your browsing history from embedded affiliate ads on the websites you’re visiting.

I can only assume. It's annoying that I can't (trivially) block that level of information gathering. I use AdBlock and I disable 3rd party cookies. I personally don't think I've looked up anything that would "tip my hand", but I'm sure my wife has used my computer/browser enough that things she researches have leaked into the corporate overlord databases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)

Is this a trivial change in user behavior from using Chrome?

(My assumption is that, at the very least, I'll need to switch from using my password manager extension to using a separate app, and having to copy/paste. I'll also probably have to export/import bookmarks. I also use Chrome profiles heavily. Are all of these things trivial to migrate?)

Brave has built-in support for multiple third-party password managers.

Chrome profiles - I dunno.

Maybe they are purchasing data from other providers about your search history, site history, etc.

We may not be there yet, but there's certainly going to be a day where online advertisers know a woman is pregnant before she does based on the changes in her behavior.

I'm not sure if that counts as a dystopia or not. Is there a good word for "Weirdtopia"?

This article talks about how Target predicts when a woman is pregnant, and the steps they go to to make it less weird:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits....

One of my favorite incidents and exactly what I was thinking about.

We are not far from that point, with Target who figured out a girl was pregnant before her dad knew:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targ...

While "notifying" that you "are" pregnant, according to data and calculations seems helpful, the fact that a lot of apparent pregnancies end in miscarriage[0], or just the emotional roller-coaster that is family planning (particularly when it requires additional medical assistance) takes a toll on people, means that these well-meaning emails can really be a negative trigger.

[0] https://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/pregnancy-miscarriage

"According to the March of Dimes, as many as 50% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage -- most often before a woman misses a menstrual period or even knows she is pregnant. About 15-25% of recognized pregnancies will end in a miscarriage."

Helpful?

I mean honestly, the whole point of computing is to do things we as humans can't do with data to make our lives easier. Now that it's actually doing those things, people think it's creepy and scary.

If a computing system knows you are pregnant before you do then maybe it can help you take steps (like taking pre-natal vitamins, abstaining from heavy drinking/smoking, starting a savings account etc...) weeks before you would have normally. How is that dystopian?

I can't help but think about how it would give you more time to consider carrying to term vs abortion, since there is a hard time limit and earlier is better in terms of stress on the body and ethics.

This would make it a target for anti-choice groups as well as internal company ethics, however, so it's a complicated issue.

If they just sent you a notification that you’re maybe pregnant I would agree. Instead it starts with advertising.

This would be an interesting case for a GDPR request.

mere curiosity is enough for such a request it needs "legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you"

see 22[1] https://gdpr-info.eu/art-22-gdpr/

I think it is a common social practice to disclose a pregnancy at the time of your choosing rather than amazon's.

A premature disclosure can significantly affect you.

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