Amazon may soon know what you want to buy before you do

Think the announcement that Amazon wants to deliver your packages in the future by drone is creepy (or cool)? Then you’re going to love this one. According to a recently filed patent, it looks like Amazon now wants to be able to predict what you are going to purchase before you actually make the purchase.

Speculation is that they will do this by paying attention to what products you spend the most time looking at. Once Amazon locks on to a product they think you might purchase, they will immediately begin shipping the product somewhere geographically close to you. According to the patent, the package may not have a final destination delivery address. Amazon could add the delivery address later while the package is already in transit.

Free products may be a cost of doing business

As you might expect, there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong with this process, including a product you are interested in reaching your doorstep without you actually ordering it. It seems that Amazon is aware of this and may be willing to concede these “free gifts” as a cost of doing business under this new anticipatory shipping practice.

A lot of people will call this an invasion of privacy but I won’t be one of them. I love this. But a part of me does wonder how many people will abuse it and spend just a little extra time browsing a product page without placing an order just to see if they can get it for free. Yet another hurdle Amazon will have to overcome.

What do you think? Is Amazon’s proposed anticipatory shipping innovative or an invasion of your privacy? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.