Amazon’s cross-industry tentacles give a superpower to data to develop incredible insights about individuals — which it can use to find very precise ways to manipulate us and the economy. It probably isn’t the best idea to have our streaming services and health care come from the same company.
…The writing has been on the wall for some time that mega-corporate consolidation is coming to health care. Insurance giant Aetna merged with CVS. Amazon made its interest known by buying online pharmacy PillPack and developing products like the Halo Band, a wearable gadget that gathers body information and dishes out advice. And when Amazon gets into a business, it doesn’t tend to just stick to the sidelines.
“This is another opportunity to gather up a huge cache of personal data to use that data and those relationships to further cement Amazon’s dominance as an online intermediary for lots of good and services,” said Stacy Mitchell, a sharp critic of the tech giant’s monopoly power who is co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
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Read the full opinion here.
