Alexa, Is Amazon Taking Over The World?

Note to Self | Dec 13, 2017

This week, the tradeoffs we don’t see when we shop on Amazon. How the company’s dominance from retail to web hosting could create a dystopia of social profiling. Why the answer isn’t to cancel your Prime. And yes, I test drive the Amazon Look so you don’t have to.

Amazon is the new Standard Oil, the “titan of twenty-first century commerce,” as rock star lawyer Lina Khan wrote in her viral law journal note.

Which, incidentally, might be a nice thing to include with your packages this year. We made a handy printable card with a link to her 96-page blockbuster. Give the gift of light reading on modern antitrust policy, along with those colanders and scarves.

Download

Be alert for scams. WNYC never asks for nor accepts money for coverage or interviews. Anyone making such a request does not represent WNYC.

Top Stories

How Big Tech Lost the Midterms

Postcards: Globetrotting, Time-traveling Notes of Love and Adventure; Remembering the 'Godfather of Techno,' Juan Atkins

Where Are We on the Autocrat-O-Meter Now?

Pete Buttigieg on the Democrats’ Sweep of Congress, and Where They Go from Here

YOU ARE ONLINE