Amazon Patents Measures to Prevent In-Store Comparison Shopping
Full article164 words · extracted from schneier.com · click to collapse
Amazon has been issued a patent on security measures that prevents people from comparison shopping while in the store. It’s not a particularly sophisticated patent—it basically detects when you’re using the in-store Wi-Fi to visit a competitor’s site and then blocks access—but it is an indication of how retail has changed in recent years.
What’s interesting is that Amazon is on the other side of this arms race. As an on-line retailer, it wants people to walk into stores and then comparison shop on its site. Yes, I know it’s buying Whole Foods, but it’s still predominantly an online retailer. Maybe it patented this to prevent stores from implementing the technology.
It’s probably not nearly that strategic. It’s hard to build a business strategy around a security measure that can be defeated with cellular access.
Tags: Amazon, cell phones, patents, Wi-Fi
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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/06/amazon_patents_.html