Amazon is using my grocery purchases to sell me prescription drugs

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the author's experience with Amazon's recommendation of cholesterol treatments and the broader implications of Amazon's growing presence in the healthcare industry.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The author's experience with Amazon's recommendations

1. What happened when the author ordered groceries on Amazon Fresh?

• When the author checked out, Amazon recommended "Treatments for High Cholesterol" along with a link for an Amazon One Medical consultation and links to prescription medications.
• This was surprising because the author's doctor and wife were the only ones who knew about the author's cholesterol numbers, which were pretty good.

2. How did the author react to these recommendations?

• The author found it "pretty creepy" for Amazon to push prescription drugs in their direction.
• The author initially thought it might have been a test or mistake, but Amazon confirmed it was a feature, not a bug.

3. What was Amazon's explanation for the recommendations?

• Amazon stated that they display products that may be related or similar to the current item purchased, but that protected health information from Amazon Health Services is not used to market or advertise general merchandise in the broader Amazon store.

[02] Amazon's data collection and healthcare ambitions

1. What data does Amazon collect about its customers?

• Amazon collects data about customers' activity on the site, like the things they buy, don't buy, and consider buying. This creates a profile that Amazon uses to recommend additional products.
• Amazon also has a booming ad business that uses "cookies, pixels, IP addresses, and other technologies" to target ads, which can potentially be used to tailor recommendations based on health-related activity.

2. What are Amazon's healthcare ambitions?

• In the past four years, Amazon has launched its own pharmacy business and bought One Medical, a primary care startup.
• This suggests Amazon's healthcare ambitions are growing, and the author's experience may have been a preview of how this could change the Amazon shopping experience.

3. What are the concerns around Amazon's healthcare involvement?

• There are concerns about Amazon's creep into the healthcare industry and what that might mean for sensitive health data.
• When Amazon bought One Medical, the FTC and others raised concerns over this.

[03] Privacy and legal implications

1. How does HIPAA apply to Amazon's data collection?

• HIPAA only applies to healthcare providers, insurers, and companies that manage medical records, not to a customer's Amazon purchases.
• This means Amazon can potentially use customer data, including health-related information, without the same privacy protections.

2. How do state-level data privacy laws affect this?

• Washington state's "My Health My Data Act" defines consumer health data more broadly, which might give Washington residents more privacy rights over health-related information in their Amazon purchases.
• However, it's unclear how this law would apply to Amazon, which is based in Washington.

3. What are the author's remaining questions and concerns?

• The author is unsure if Amazon plans to regularly target customers with prescription drug recommendations, and whether this feels more invasive than convenient.
• The author is still making sense of this experience and has more questions than answers.