It's a brand new year, but Amazon is still being creepy. The latest news is that the retail giant's Echo smart speakers could soon assess your shopping habits and sneakily nudge you towards buying from a particular brand that has a partnership with Amazon, CNBC reports.
As things stand now, the speakers allow advertising on music, news, or podcasts, although the "voice" isn't allowed to sound like or refer to Amazon's own voice assistant, Alexa. Brands, though, are itching for more. "Advertisers and brands are particularly focused on search placement on Alexa because shoppers are more likely to select a top result on a voice assistant than they are on the web, where it's easy to scroll down or ignore written suggestions," CNBC writes. For example, if a customer asks for toothpaste, Alexa can potentially say: "Okay, I can look for a brand, like Colgate. What would you like?"
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