My tinfoil hat is quivering. I just went to Amazon.com for the first time

[patricia92243]

After I registered and they showed me a page "just for me", the first thing they recommended to me was the Bill Clinton book. Every time I go back there they recommend all sorts of other things, but the Clinton book stays on top. There were also a few other Democrat type books.

Now the tinfoil part: Is there someway they know I'm a Democrat from the various web sites I visit? And of course I am a registered Democrat in my home town. I wonder if a person that visited Republican sites a lot would have had some kind of Republican stuff "recommended" to them?

[sweettater]

1. Big Brother

is watching.

[KeepItReal]

2. They may do a search to see what cookies you have on your PC

If you do not erase your Internet Explorer (are you using that?) or other web browser cookies (little files websites leave on your machine to ID you) often, Amazon or some other site may do a check to see if you have cookies from certain places, like D.U. or Democrats.com.

Does Amazon search for cookies other than their own? I don't know. I'm sure it would not be hard for them to create a database of website cookies and type of people affiliated with them. That would help explain how they can recommend something to you when you've never used them before.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I imagine they are defaulting to the number one sellers

Wouldn't have anything to do with other sites you've visited.

Though they might have been able, when you registered, to grab the site you were at just previous to going to Amazon.

But i have a feeling they offered the Clinton book because it's the biggest seller for now, and the other dem books because the number one seller is a dem book.

[calico1]

4. I have bought a number of cookbooks in the past year

at Amazon. Just about every time I sign on they have cookbook recommendations in my personal page. They will also recommend bestsellers.

[RoyGBiv]

5. It's just a default setting for new accounts...

Amazon, like any retailer, has products they push. There is a heavy marketing strategy behind Clinton's book, and what you see on your page is akin to seeing that book in the front of the store display in an actual book shoppe.

Your browsing habits on the site will be collected, though, and if you browse through a lot of political books, that's what will be presented to you. At some point, even if you browse nothing but progressive oriented books, you'll get a recommendation for some highly marketed RW book because it fits the generic political interest in your profile, and they are being paid to push it.

I have an interest in historical fiction, but only a certain kind. Despite that, I am constantly having books pushed at me for which I have no interest but which are from high profile authors.

Side note: I had a paranoid moment about Amazon not too long ago. I hit a website, and on the side was a little note that said, "Hello, RoyGBiv ..." I eventually figured out it was due to Amazon's sell-thru program where websites place links leading back to Amazon. If you don't log-out of your Amazon account, a cookie stays active that allows these sites to identify you by whatever name you used to create your account.

[shockingelk]

6. Here's how they could have decided to show that

If you are accepting all cookies, the amazon.com site could pull up a list of books linked to at amazon.com at every website you visit. For instance, if a webblogger linked to the Clinton book's page on Amazon, you visited that weblog and many days later visited amazon, it would know you saw that book in the weblog.

In most browsers, there's a setting like "Only allow cookies from sites you navigate to". That's the one you want. It will prevent websites from knowing where else you've been and what you've seen.