this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
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Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful (www.theverge.com)
submitted 3 days ago by JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] artyom@piefed.social 44 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

I really wish more people would include short summaries in their posts so I don't have to read 12 paragraphs of bloat on a heavy webpage.

”As customers shop with us more frequently, including on their phones, and use the ‘Your Orders’ page in the Amazon app to get real-time, consolidated order details and delivery status, we’ve simplified several order-related emails to direct customers to our app and website for the latest information on their orders,” spokesperson Maxine Tagay said in an email. “This also reduces customer information shared outside the Amazon app and website to further improve customer privacy.”

In other words: It’s a way to hedge against the DoorDash problem by hiding the meaty information on Amazon’s properties, and to keep customers visiting the retailer directly.

Yet again it's another thing AI is ruining and another way for companies to claw back value for themselves at the expense of their users.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Does the article explain what the "DoorDash problem" is?

[–] ssladam@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not adequately. They simply say there's some vague "need" to get people to visit the app/site, but they don't outline WHY that's harmful to the company if people can get the information directly.

My guess? It's about data protection. Amazon doesn't want Google via gmail to learn exactly what you're buying. By holding it in house they can better target you than anyone else, and also sell this "high value data" to data brokers

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They don't care about email scraping (which would be illegal)

They simply want people to install the app because it exfiltrates a lot of tasty data to them.

An email might "only" contain ab invisible image to track views and unique links for tracking clicks, while if the user opens the app they way more data.

From the APK I see they can get stuff like

  • All the contacts of the user, all email addresses and phone numbers
  • GPS location
  • Camera and photos
  • Microphone
  • Your phone number, your device IMEI and your unique advertising id, for cross tracking you better around other sites
  • Send push notifications for FOMO promotions like "OMG it's the last one buy now before it gets sold out!!!"
[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 1 points 2 days ago

Most of this scraping (like Google indexing your emails) is legal if the user is informed (an in EU if they can disable it)

The team problem the article hints at iis doordash and Amazon claims the customer relationships and hides the customer from the real company that actually made the sale. They make themselves a middleman to displace others as much as possible and use their size to manipulate the market in their favor (like demanding higher margins than other retailers)

[–] queueBenSis@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

fuck amazon. i literally just built an email scraper so i can use this exact email as a way to understand where my disposable amazon spending is going. because of course they don’t offer any way to export your purchases to analyze your spending.