Definitely, and literally everything Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple does is to get more data from you. It is literally all they care about right now. They think with NN's and AI they can learn to control us (and maybe they can) and already do to some extent.
Those ancestry DNA testing companies are a fun new addition to the party as well. All that genetic data gets sold off to the highest bidder. GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals just purchased a $300 million stake in 23andMe. Think about that for a second. I’m sure they’re working on cures for genetic disorders as we speak. Lol. Or maybe they’re using the data to peddle drugs more efficiently (and expensively) to targeted groups of sick people.
Wish I bought more Amazon stock around 2015 - it was a crazy 4 year run on it (and not a huge surprise, AWS runs 1/2 the internet nowadays).
Have you been to Seattle lately? Went there a month ago and wow, not sure if its a corporate utopia or dystopia, either way the amazon go store was fun.
Luckily, I have not, it was getting crazy around 2012 - the last time I had to go there and I know it got much worse since. FWIW - we have been very early on the AWS bandwagon as our cloud provider - it was a smart decision - say what you want about them - their services are top-notch.
"We see non of the value ourselves" is a very misleading statement imho. There is a reason targeted content is so successful - it makes life easier for the consumers and it is one of the reasons they flock to services that offer it. There is no doubt that the owners of the data benefit from it greatly and one could argue that maybe un-proportionally - but no value is just a catch-phrase and patently wrong.
Go there somewhat frequently for work, work with Microsoft Hololens people here and there. The whole city seems to be Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing...
Yeah, AWS is a good platform for development and has really good support/documentation, and it's reliable too.
