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The complaint says they internally called the cancellation process "the Iliad Flow". See page 43 for a full description: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_go

The complaint says they internally called the cancellation process "the Iliad Flow". See page 43 for a full description: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-public-redacted-complaint-to_be_filed.pdf https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-pu...

david_allison 3y ago
Direct page link (most in-browser PDF readers support #page=43) https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-public-redacted-complaint-to_be_filed.pdf#page=43 https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-pu...
- burkaman 3y ago
  Thanks, I guess that works in Firefox too
everybodyknows 3y ago
Also a click-by-click guide! It's a funny world of ours, where the best UI documentation available is found in a government legal action.
whoknew1122 3y ago
Disclosure: Work for AWS. My only experience with Prime is as a customer (and the odd beta for new types of programming). I wouldn't read much into the internal names of things at Amazon. They're picked at random by nerds. I've seen apps internally named after space, Dragon Ball Z, Lord of the Rings, coffee and candy, etc. I'm pretty sure I've used another, completely different thing that's also called Iliad. It's not malicious. It's just one of those Amazon things that make working there sometimes a chore.
- burkaman 3y ago
  I believe you that some internal names are random, and it's possible that this one is too, but obviously Amazon doesn't have the benefit of the doubt here. What is clearly malicious is that Project Iliad was intentionally designed to reduce cancellations among the population of users that already wanted to cancel (as opposed to reducing cancellations by making the service better). Here's some of the evidence that is redacted in the FTC complaint: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-custo... > Internal documents also show that Amazon intentionally drew out the process of canceling a Prime membership. Under a project code-named "Iliad," Amazon created multiple layers of questions and new offers before a Prime member could cancel their subscription, in hopes of reducing member churn. The number of cancellations dropped by 14% at one point in 2017 following the launch of Iliad, and fewer members were navigating to the final cancellation page, one of the documents said.
- lljk_kennedy 3y ago
  Yeah the internal codenames in engineering aren't malicious, i.e Apollo makes sense. But a project name? Na, that's picked intentionally.

david_allison 3y ago

Direct page link (most in-browser PDF readers support #page=43) https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-public-redacted-complaint-to_be_filed.pdf#page=43 https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-pu...

burkaman 3y ago
Thanks, I guess that works in Firefox too

everybodyknows 3y ago

Also a click-by-click guide! It's a funny world of ours, where the best UI documentation available is found in a government legal action.

whoknew1122 3y ago

Disclosure: Work for AWS. My only experience with Prime is as a customer (and the odd beta for new types of programming). I wouldn't read much into the internal names of things at Amazon. They're picked at random by nerds. I've seen apps internally named after space, Dragon Ball Z, Lord of the Rings, coffee and candy, etc. I'm pretty sure I've used another, completely different thing that's also called Iliad. It's not malicious. It's just one of those Amazon things that make working there sometimes a chore.

burkaman 3y ago
I believe you that some internal names are random, and it's possible that this one is too, but obviously Amazon doesn't have the benefit of the doubt here. What is clearly malicious is that Project Iliad was intentionally designed to reduce cancellations among the population of users that already wanted to cancel (as opposed to reducing cancellations by making the service better). Here's some of the evidence that is redacted in the FTC complaint: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-custo... > Internal documents also show that Amazon intentionally drew out the process of canceling a Prime membership. Under a project code-named "Iliad," Amazon created multiple layers of questions and new offers before a Prime member could cancel their subscription, in hopes of reducing member churn. The number of cancellations dropped by 14% at one point in 2017 following the launch of Iliad, and fewer members were navigating to the final cancellation page, one of the documents said.
lljk_kennedy 3y ago
Yeah the internal codenames in engineering aren't malicious, i.e Apollo makes sense. But a project name? Na, that's picked intentionally.