- Amazon's Ad Verification program offers select users $2 per month for sharing their traffic data.
- It is part of Amazon's Shopper Panel, an invite-only program that offers users financial rewards.
Some Amazon users will now earn $2 dollar per month for agreeing to share their traffic data with the retail giant.
Under $4, Amazon is tracking what ads participants saw, where they saw them, and the time of day they were viewed. This includes Amazon's own ads and third-party ads on the platform.
Through the program, Amazon hopes to offer more personalized-ad experiences to customers that reflect what they have previously purchased, $4.
"Your participation will help brands offer better products and make ads from Amazon more relevant,"$4.
The $2 reward only applies to Amazon users invited to participate in the program, though customers who didn't get invited can get added to a waitlist and potentially join later, an Amazon spokesperson told Insider. The spokesperson declined to tell Insider how the company decided who to invite.
The deal is part of the $4, an invite-only program where select Amazon customers can earn $10 per month if they upload 10 eligible receipts from purchases made outside of Amazon. Panelists can receive additional monthly rewards for completing short surveys.
The Ad Verification program — currently limited to US and UK-based Amazon customers — was launched in the wake of concerns from privacy advocates over how Amazon handles sensitive user data.
Earlier this month, $4 how Amazon would handle the data it obtained through healthcare startup OneMedical. And there have long been concerns over how the company uses the data from $4 like Alexa and Ring, CNBC reported.
When pressed on its privacy concerns, an Amazon spokesperson referred Insider to its $4 and $4.
Participants can opt out of the program at any time, according to the FAQs.
The company also said it will delete sensitive information such as prescription information from pharmaceutical receipts $4. Participants are able to delete receipts they've uploaded to the app whenever they want, per the notice.
Exchanging user data for a financial reward is nothing new.
In 2016, Facebook launched a program that gave monthly $20 gift cards to users between the ages of 13 and 25 if they installed Facebook Research, a VPN app that tracked their online activity for market research, $4$4
In 2012, Google launched Screenwise, a program that gave volunteer users $5 Amazon gift cards — with additional ones every three months for up to a year — to download a Google Chrome browser extension that tracked what they did on the internet, $4.
Another part of the Screenwise program gave users $100 — plus another $20 per month after signing up — if they agreed to install a Google-provided router in their homes to track their behavior, per Ars Technica.
Both the Facebook and Google programs were shut down in 2019 due to privacy concerns, $4 and $4 reported.