Amazon Price Test Raises Net Privacy Outcry

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Amazon.-com’s random consumer price test, which charged different customers different prices for the same DVD movies, has raised privacy concerns among consumer groups fearful of retailers who use the Web to gather large quantities of personal information about shoppers.

Using a sales strategy called “dynamic pricing,” whereby a re-tailer can determine a customer’s ability to pay based on desire and means, is not new. But when Amazon launched a price test in September charging some regular customers 3-5 percent more for the same DVDs, the public outrage was considerable.

“This is the first clear example of how the ubiquitous collection of personal information on the Web is harming consumers, and that is not a good precedent to set,” said Andrew Shen, a policy analyst at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public-interest research center in Washington, D.C.

Seattle-based Amazon, which wanted to determine how lower prices affected sales, said it varied the discounts...





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