Mr. Amazon Roboto

Amazon Robot

If someone were to steal all my account user names and passwords to my Amazon and Facebook, I think they will be able to tell a lot about me by the advertisements and suggestions these sites make for me. I have very eclectic groups of interests, so I do not think they could pinpoint me out among a crowd. My hidden interests are revealed from my Amazon account definitely. The bot, who has to categorize me by my purchases, does very well to determine what I would be interested in. If someone got a hold of my Amazon account, they will definitely find that I have an interest in trashy, romance novels. The Amazon bot is always consistent in suggesting for me to buy the newest Mary Balogh novel. The bot definitely used my purchasing history to determine that I would want to buy a new novel. As well as doing this, the bot is able to recommend other authors that I would most likely be interested in. Along with going through my purchasing history, the bot also utilizes my shipping address to notice that I am currently living in Austin. The bot uses that for its advantage and it suggests University of Texas merchandise as they assume correctly that I support them. The Amazon bot does a great job of determining the person I am by my purchases.
Every time I log onto Facebook, I am really surprised on how well the bot selects the ads that I would be interested and most likely click on. If a person were to gain my password to my Facebook account, they would be really surprised to notice that I have a love for random t-shirts, which I really do not advertise to people. The other day I was so surprised that Facebook even suggested I check out this random t-shirt website called Cotton Factory. The surprising thing is that I have been using Cotton Factory for about eight years now, and nowhere on my facebook profile does it state that I have a love for random, funny t-shirts. Another ad that the Facebook bot chose exactly for me was an ad for a national group called Advocates of the Youth. Now, the ad that attracted me initially was an ad on the side posing the question “Want 500 Condoms For Free?” I immediately clicked on this ad to figure out what the catch was, and I stumbled upon Advocates of the Youth. They are a national organization who promotes safe sex for America’s youth. The 500 condoms is a part of their Great Condom Campaign, which they are giving away 500 free Trojans to college students, who want to help volunteer for their cause. All I had to do was fill out a form explaining why I would be a good person to send the condoms to and what efforts would I take in educating my peers about the importance of safe sex. Within a week, I was chosen to be a SafeSite, and I was sent a box of 500 condoms. If Facebook never had that ad, I would not be able to work for such a great cause plus getting 500 free condoms is a great perk, and I distribute them among my friends and organizations I am in. Another effective Facebook ad are study abroad advertisements on the sidebar of my Facebook profile. On my profile, it’s obvious that I enjoy travelling a lot and the Facebook bot must have used that information to tell that I am absolutely infatuated with the idea of studying abroad. Every time I log into Facebook and see that study abroad ad it makes me yearn to study abroad. The Facebook bot really does an effective job in enticing me with the ads they think I would like, and most of the time they are exactly right. I find myself clicking on ads all the time because they seem to pertain to me specifically. I believe Facebook is able to use one’s profile whether it be interests, hobbies, or music to post particular ads they would find enticing.