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What does Amazon gain from an anti-Snowden article? Should we be worried about the privacy of our purchase history and AWS instances even more than we already

What does Amazon gain from an anti-Snowden article? Should we be worried about the privacy of our purchase history and AWS instances even more than we already were?

dalke 10y ago
I think it's more about the political influence Bezos might get by showing that he supports the established political system.
- jackmott 10y ago
  I would wager it is just that this is what Bezos believes is right.
  - 20yrs_no_equity 10y ago
    What Jeff believes is right is what accrues to Jeff more power. The founders of Google, Bill Gates and Steve Balmer, Jobs and Wozniak, the early Sun people, they all made mistakes and might have done bad things. Generally I think people running businesses are doing so because they want to make a dent in the universe. I don't buy the idea that CEOs are sociopaths (which seems to be a common perception). But if you told me you believed Bezos was a sociopath I would suspect you were right. I only worked there a couple years but I had more interaction with him than I would like (though he never chewed me out) and usually, I'm eager to get close to the CEO and learn what I can.
    - wallace_f 10y ago
      >Bezos was a sociopath Can you elaborate, please, on why you feel this way?
      - jacquesm 10y ago
        You've quoted that so out of context it now has a different meaning.
        wallace_f 10y ago
        What? I am not intending to morph the author's meaning. He said: >If you told me you thought Bezo's was a sociopath I'd suspect you're right How and what did I take out of context and what was the intended meaning that I transformed into something else?
tomc1985 10y ago
Snowden's revelations did a lot of damage to trust in American servers and internet services internationally. (Bezos/Amazon probably stands to lose much in this way.) Many other parts of the world actually care for their privacy; Germany for example is still wary of excess data collection because of the Stasi and the problems they created. News of PRISM et al is probably one of a few root causes behind underpinning this newfound federation of internet authority
- lolc 10y ago
  > Snowden's revelations did a lot of damage to trust in American servers and internet services internationally. (Bezos/Amazon probably stands to lose much in this way.) By attacking the messenger they show how little they care about their users.
rodgerd 10y ago
Bezos kicked Wikileaks from Amazon's infrastructure with nothing more than a few senators expressing displeasure at WL's actions. Whether Bezos is a True Believer in the American empire, or whether he just wants to curry favour with the government to make money is beside the point: Amazon is definitely a partisan in these things. It will be interesting how that fact will play out in Europe and Asia over time.
my-cowardly-alt 10y ago
Not Amazon, but Bezos' startup Blue Origin is a defense contractor, currently bidding to supply the rocket engines for US national security launches (Air Force, NRO). He's one of two finalists (with Aerojet Rocketdyne), with a decision expected in 2016 or 2017. http://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-lockheed-venture-developing-reusable-engine-for-satellite-launches-1428958267 http://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-lockheed-venture-developi... I think it's reasonable to say it's a conflict of interest, trying to be both a newspaper reporting on the intelligence industry, and a major contractor for that industry at the same time. (I apologize for creating a throwaway to post this; I'd prefer not to annoy AWS).
- wallace_f 10y ago
  Years ago I reserved this kind of level of paranoia for the tin foil hat types, but to me now, it seems not only reasonable, but prudent.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    It's a sobering thought that we are still thinking about some as 'tin foil hat types', which makes you wonder what we'll think of them years from now.
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      I realize this is an old thread, but it occurs to me that one of the problems is that implausible conspiracies are lumped together with plausible, likely operations and dismissed as a group with a single label.
      - wallace_f 10y ago
        I agree wholeheartedly. Apparently the CIA popularized the term 'conspiracy theory,' in the 60s, though I don't have knowledge on the veracity of that claim. It's clear that at least a non-pejorative term would be useful.

What does Amazon gain from an anti-Snowden article? Should we be worried about the privacy of our purchase history and AWS instances even more than we already were?

dalke 10y ago

I think it's more about the political influence Bezos might get by showing that he supports the established political system.

jackmott 10y ago
I would wager it is just that this is what Bezos believes is right.
- 20yrs_no_equity 10y ago
  What Jeff believes is right is what accrues to Jeff more power. The founders of Google, Bill Gates and Steve Balmer, Jobs and Wozniak, the early Sun people, they all made mistakes and might have done bad things. Generally I think people running businesses are doing so because they want to make a dent in the universe. I don't buy the idea that CEOs are sociopaths (which seems to be a common perception). But if you told me you believed Bezos was a sociopath I would suspect you were right. I only worked there a couple years but I had more interaction with him than I would like (though he never chewed me out) and usually, I'm eager to get close to the CEO and learn what I can.
  - wallace_f 10y ago
    >Bezos was a sociopath Can you elaborate, please, on why you feel this way?
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      You've quoted that so out of context it now has a different meaning.
      - wallace_f 10y ago
        What? I am not intending to morph the author's meaning. He said: >If you told me you thought Bezo's was a sociopath I'd suspect you're right How and what did I take out of context and what was the intended meaning that I transformed into something else?

tomc1985 10y ago

Snowden's revelations did a lot of damage to trust in American servers and internet services internationally. (Bezos/Amazon probably stands to lose much in this way.) Many other parts of the world actually care for their privacy; Germany for example is still wary of excess data collection because of the Stasi and the problems they created. News of PRISM et al is probably one of a few root causes behind underpinning this newfound federation of internet authority

lolc 10y ago
> Snowden's revelations did a lot of damage to trust in American servers and internet services internationally. (Bezos/Amazon probably stands to lose much in this way.) By attacking the messenger they show how little they care about their users.

rodgerd 10y ago

Bezos kicked Wikileaks from Amazon's infrastructure with nothing more than a few senators expressing displeasure at WL's actions. Whether Bezos is a True Believer in the American empire, or whether he just wants to curry favour with the government to make money is beside the point: Amazon is definitely a partisan in these things. It will be interesting how that fact will play out in Europe and Asia over time.

my-cowardly-alt 10y ago

Not Amazon, but Bezos' startup Blue Origin is a defense contractor, currently bidding to supply the rocket engines for US national security launches (Air Force, NRO). He's one of two finalists (with Aerojet Rocketdyne), with a decision expected in 2016 or 2017. http://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-lockheed-venture-developing-reusable-engine-for-satellite-launches-1428958267 http://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-lockheed-venture-developi... I think it's reasonable to say it's a conflict of interest, trying to be both a newspaper reporting on the intelligence industry, and a major contractor for that industry at the same time. (I apologize for creating a throwaway to post this; I'd prefer not to annoy AWS).

wallace_f 10y ago
Years ago I reserved this kind of level of paranoia for the tin foil hat types, but to me now, it seems not only reasonable, but prudent.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  It's a sobering thought that we are still thinking about some as 'tin foil hat types', which makes you wonder what we'll think of them years from now.
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    I realize this is an old thread, but it occurs to me that one of the problems is that implausible conspiracies are lumped together with plausible, likely operations and dismissed as a group with a single label.
    - wallace_f 10y ago
      I agree wholeheartedly. Apparently the CIA popularized the term 'conspiracy theory,' in the 60s, though I don't have knowledge on the veracity of that claim. It's clear that at least a non-pejorative term would be useful.