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Originally Posted by issybird
But I never would have assumed that Amazon purged all record of my ever having had the books I deleted.
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There are lots of companies that are supposed to delete their records of you upon your request. Per government mandate. So while you personally may not assume this would happen with Amazon, there are people who would.
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Why would they? It's all grist for their mill.
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I agree 100%. They wouldn't want to. The more information and data they have on you, the better equipped they are to sell you more things. That is the whole point of their business. Profit. I don't blame them for that. That is the motive for every commercial business out there (or it should be).
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
And labeling them "liars" is just absurd. If they were really out to deceive, they'd have continued to keep their deep dark secret about how they hang onto all the data they've accumulated.
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I disagree 100%. You are attempting to provide a justification, by presenting logic that on the surface kind of makes sense, that blesses them saying they permanently deleted something when they didn't. My point was not that they "were out to deceive". My point was that "they said they deleted something that they didn't". I'm sure they justified in their mind that they were not intentionally deceiving anyone. And maybe they weren't. But when you say you did something, but you actually didn't, that's defined as a lie. Regardless of your intentions.
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Originally Posted by issybird
To put Amazon's gloss on it, their intent is to do the customer a favor. You can ascribe whatever motive you like.
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That is definitely "putting their gloss on it". Their motive is, or should be, the same as every other for-profit company out there ... "to make more money". In this case, I propose that Amazon plans to make more money here by re-exposing customers to previous purchases, in hopes that they may buy a sequel book or maybe a book by a similar author that they recommend. I doubt it's really to "do the customer a favor", except in the context of that favor coming back to Amazon in the form of a subsequent sale. This is only my opinion of course. But if I were considering investing in Amazon, I most surely would want them focused on making money. That means more rate of return from my investment. I don't invest in companies to promote some cause that they are championing. I invest in them to make money for myself. I would speculate that most investors are like me in this regard, although I'm sure there are some that choose where they money goes based on some cause or another, profits be damned. I do sometimes look at corporate causes, but only in the context of if I think those causes will result in higher profits. A good cause, with bad profits - nope. A bad cause, with good profits - yep. But if the cause is really, really disgusting to me - it's a nope in that case too (so I don't always follow my own rules).