A controversy over the possible misuse of users’ personal data accumulated by Facebook has not yet subsided as another technology giant has drawn the attention of President Donald Trump.
Amazon.com Inc. controls some 45 percent of the online retail business in the United States (or about 4 percent of the country’s total retail sales) and has become a retail powerhouse in several other developed countries.
Business Issue
As part of natural market evolution, consumers increasingly do their shopping online, instead of driving to malls or visiting high street shops. Of course, a reduction of jobs in traditional retail most likely will follow, but new jobs are already being created elsewhere—in the distribution systems that service the online transactions.
Real Issues
There are, however, two real concerns about the company that can’t be dismissed so easily.There is Amazon’s near-monopolistic market position, which can be used to squeeze suppliers and to push possible competitors out of the market. It is up to the U.S. legal system to decide whether these circumstances justify putting in motion an antitrust procedure. In this context, it is not reassuring that Amazon has a strong lobbying team and a publishing platform with The Washington Post.
Data Risk
The biggest risk here is obvious: Is this information going to be put to other uses, to the detriment of Amazon’s customers? In this context, the coming update of the EU Data Protection Directive of 1995, which regulates the processing of personal data within the European community, may merit attention, despite its complexity, as a part of a possible solution.Trump might be correct on another point as well. As the issues of Amazon’s data and its retail market position arise, it is a concern that the company’s founder and CEO, and one of the largest shareholders, also owns the Post, the U.S. capital’s most influential daily.
One would like to assume that neither the famous newspaper nor Bezos have the intention to misuse Amazon’s information through the Post. The advantages for both and the possibilities for abuse, however, make this scenario rather unlikely.
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