Dr. Ibrahim Samira, an Arab-American of Palestinian descent, studied online privacy issues as a Virginia legislator and discussed how tech companies regulate personal data. However, he was shocked to learn the full details of the information Amazon had collected about him.
Dr. Samira discovered that the e-commerce giant was able to access more than a thousand contacts from his personal phone, including family members of his close friends, in addition to his colleagues at work, and everyone who has a relationship with him from near or far.
He also discovered that the company had records of which part of the Holy Qur'an he had listened to, as Dr. Samira mentioned in his Twitter account and was reported by American newspapers and news sites.
The company learned of every search he had done on its platform, including his search for books on "progressive society organizing" and other sensitive inquiries about his personal health that he thought were too private and only one to see.
Selling products or spying operations?
"Do they sell products or spy on ordinary people?" Dr. Samira asks disapprovingly.
Later, Dr. Ibrahim Samira asked Amazon to disclose all the data it collected about him as a consumer.
Dr. Ibrahim Samira, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was among a few state lawmakers who opposed the industry-friendly "state privacy" bill drafted by Amazon and passed earlier this year in the country.
According to a report by Newsweek, Amazon collects a wide range of information about its customers in the United States, and began making this data available to everyone on demand early last year, after it failed to fight a bill brought against it by the state of California in 2018 that would force it to Disclosure of this data on demand, as Amazon customers in the United States and Singapore can obtain their data by filling out a form on the Amazon website.
Dr. Ibrahim Samira was among the few lawmakers who opposed the "state privacy" bill (Reuters)
Alexa.. spearhead
Amazon collects data on consumers through its Alexa voice assistant, its e-commerce marketplace, Kindle e-readers, audiobooks, video and music platforms, the home security cameras it sells, and fitness trackers. .
Alexa-enabled devices also record everything that happens inside homes, and Ring security cameras capture every visitor who knocks on the door.
This information can reveal a person's height, weight, and health;
His gender, race, political leanings, habit of reading and shopping, where he is on any given day, as well as the people he met.
A Reuters reporter's file revealed that Amazon collected more than 90,000 Alexa recordings of his own family members between December 2017 and June this year - an average of 70 records per day - and the recordings included details such as his young children's names, songs and favorite games.
Some of the recordings included conversations between family members using Alexa devices to communicate across different parts of the house.
Several recordings were taken of children apologizing to their parents, and other recordings captured other children between the ages of 7 and 9 asking Alexa awkward sexual questions, and the reporter did not realize that Amazon was storing the recordings before the company disclosed the data it had tracked on family members.
Amazon told Reuters at the time that its Alexa products were designed to record as few conversations as possible, however, the reporter's family recordings often took over long conversations.
Amazon told Reuters it collects personal data to improve and personalize its products and services to individuals.
In response to a question about the recordings of Dr. Ibrahim Samira listening to the Qur’an in the Amazon audio book service, the company said that such data allows customers to continue listening from where they left off in the previous session.
Amazon said its customers can adjust their settings on voice assistants and other services to limit the data that is collected.
Alexa users can, for example, prevent the company from automatically saving or deleting their recordings periodically, and they can disconnect their contacts or calendars from their smart speaker devices if they don't want to use Alexa calling functions.
Amazon collects data on consumers through its voice assistant "Alexa" (Reuters)
Every move you make..Amazon is watching you
And back to Dr. Ibrahim Samira who had bought an Alexa-enabled smart speaker during the holiday season last year.
He said he only used it for 3 days before returning it to the company after realizing he was collecting his recordings.
"It really amazed me," he added.
This is according to what was recently reported by the "chargedretail" website.
The device had already collected all of its phone contacts, part of a feature that allows users to make calls through the device.
Amazon said Alexa users must give the company permission to access phone contacts.
Customers must disable access to phone contacts, not just delete the Alexa app, in order to delete records from their Amazon account.
Dr. Ibrahim Samira said he was also concerned that Amazon had detailed records of the books he read or listened to using their own products.
He added that finding information about his Quran listening that was revealed in his Amazon file made him reflect on the history of US police and intelligence agencies monitoring Muslims for suspected terrorist links after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Why do they need to know this?" Samira asks.
Dr. Ibrahim Samira's term ends next January, after he lost a bid for re-election earlier this year.
Amazon collects a wide range of information about its customers in the United States, and began making this data available to everyone on demand early last year (The Associated Press)
Cooperation with intelligence agencies
Sometimes, intelligence agencies and law enforcement seek customer data from technology companies.
Amazon has disclosed that it complies with search warrants and other court orders of law seeking to obtain data the company holds in an account, while objecting to "loosely or otherwise inappropriate requests".
Amazon's data for the three years ending in June of last year, the most recent data available, shows that the company complied at least partially with 75% of subpoenas, search warrants and other court orders seeking data on American customers, as well as the company has responded to 38% of those requests.
Amazon stopped disclosing how often it complied with such requests last year.
Asked why, the company said it had expanded the US report to make it global, and "coordinated" information from each country on law enforcement inquiries.
She said she was obligated to comply with "in force and binding orders", but that her goal was to release the "minimum" of information required by law.
Privacy policy
Amazon's 3,500-word privacy policy, which also links to more than 20 other pages of privacy and user settings, gives the company ample scope for collecting information about customers.
This information can become completely personal.
The reporter's data file showed that Amazon e-readers, for example, accurately track a user's reading habits.
The disclosure included records of more than 3,700 reading sessions since 2017, including timestamp records - in milliseconds - of books read.
Amazon also tracks keywords that have been featured or searched for, as well as which pages and promotions a user has read.
Associate Professor Florian Schaub, a privacy researcher at the University of Michigan, said companies are not always transparent about what they do with user data.
"We have to rely on Amazon's 'honesty' in how we handle our data, rather than being confident that this data can't be misused," he added sarcastically.
But is there still honesty in this world where there are no secrets?