Shopping platforms like Amazon are more successful the more they know about their customers. Tailor-made offers and ads make the site more relevant and, ideally, lead to fewer returns. Therefore, the company tries to get as much data as possible.
In order to find out more about its own customers, the online mail order company Amazon has been running the “Shopper Panel” program for some time. A panel is a group of people used for interviews and observation, and that’s what the company does. If you have an Amazon account, you can register for the program and answer short questionnaires and activate the tracking of advertisements. This allows you to earn small amounts of money in the form of Amazon credit. TECHBOOK tried the “Shopper Panel” app.
How do you get money through Amazon’s Shopper Panel?
In Germany that supports it Shopper Panel Program currently two functions. On the one hand, customers can take part in surveys and earn small amounts of money as Amazon credit. In this respect, the app is similar to Google’s Opinion Rewards, which also rewards surveys with PayPal or Play Store credit. How much credit there is depends on the particular survey there. Also, not all customers get the same surveys, as these depend on the target group.
Another way to get Amazon credit through the Shopper Panel is through what is known as ad verification. If you activate this, you will be credited with a fixed amount of 3 euros per month. However, behind the relatively harmless-looking term hides a rather invasive tracking function that tracks exactly when and where users see advertising from Amazon itself or from third-party providers that use Amazon Ads.
According to Amazon, participation in the Shopper Panel is by invitation only. However, TECHBOOK was able to simply download the app from the Apple App Store and use it immediately after registering with the Amazon account. The app is also available in the Google Play Store.
Ad verification redirects web requests to Amazon servers
To use this function, users on iPhones must allow the so-called Identifier For Advertisers (IDFA) to be passed on. By default, each iPhone is assigned such an identifier, which allows personalized advertising to be played out. But in iOS, access to the IDFA can be denied for individual apps via “Reject app tracking”. This means that providers can only track user behavior within the app and not across multiple apps. In addition, they are not allowed to pass the data on to third parties.
In both iOS and Android, the panel app also wants access to the VPN settings. This is used to set up an Amazon DNS. This modified domain name system ensures that all internet requests go to the Amazon servers first. The shopper panel is said to receive “no personal data” or share it with third parties. Also, users must enable notifications for the Shopper Panel app.
According to Amazon, in order to “collect and use information about the ads you see from Amazon,” the company needs access to the advertising ID and needs to redirect internet traffic through its servers. The data collected in this way is used to check the relevance and correct display of advertising. This allows the company to personalize ads even more precisely in the future.
After all, users can disable ad verification at any time and delete the data already collected. If the function remains switched off for more than 48 hours, there are no 3 euros for the corresponding month. Important: Even after turning off the feature, app tracking and notifications for Shopper Panel remain enabled. This means that users must turn off both options manually, even if they have already disabled ad verification.
Amazon doesn’t pay enough
“$3 is way too little for the amount of data you give to Amazon via “Ad Verification”. It’s also a step in the wrong direction, because it’s not for nothing that Apple and Google are making it increasingly difficult for apps to track user behavior. Even if you don’t have a problem with passing on your data, you shouldn’t do it for a paltry 3 euros. Because for a billion-dollar company like Amazon, this data is far more valuable.” Adrian Mühlroth, editor
There is no central function in Germany
One of the main functions of the Shopper Panel is submitting receipts to Amazon. Anyone who photographs 10 valid receipts and uploads them to the app or forwards online invoices to [email protected] can earn 10 US dollars (approx. 9 euros) a month. This does not apply to sensitive purchases such as medicines.
This function cannot be found in the German version of the Shopper Panel app. Amazon customers can only take part in surveys and have their advertising ID tracked.