Amazon’s drones just got creepier.
In case you didn’t know already, Amazon has been developing delivery drones since 2013. In December 2016, Amazon completed its first successful drone delivery.
The drones use cameras to make their way to their destinations, of course. But it turns out that these cameras will be used for more than just navigation.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently approved a patent submitted by Amazon for “Trigger Agents in Video Streams from Drones”.
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Basically, Amazon is planning to recommend purchases to customers based on video captured by drones. One of the examples listed in the patent is that, while making a delivery, a drone might see that a customer’s roof is in need of repair. Amazon would then recommend products that the customer could use to fix up their roof.
With a market cap of over $400 billion, Amazon is one of the most successful companies in the world. Amazon owes a large part of that success to their startlingly accurate recommendation engine, which entices customers to buy stuff they didn’t even know they wanted. It’s no surprise that Amazon wants to use their drones to make their recommendation game even stronger.
There are obvious privacy concerns with video-collecting drones, but don’t worry. Amazon says they will only analyze this video data with the customer’s consent.
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