Trade your privacy for $3.88 in savings!

I just made my first use of Amazon.com’s MP3 sales system to purchase the Hellgate: London Soundtrack. Which, incidentally, makes a fantastic workplace listen. A nice mix of industrial and orchestral, it packs more intensity than the Halo 3 soundtrack, with fun little riffs that hearken back to Blade Runner. Unlike music with lyrics or really highly structured melodies, it isn’t as intrusive when you need mental bandwith to be supported, not distracted.

I paid ninety-nine cents per track for the thirteen-song album. I could have paid $8.99. But I didn’t, because downloading the entire album also requires downloading a little application from Amazon that plays it so innocent you can’t help but be suspicious. It’s billed as a facilitator that helps you download entire albums at a discount instead of one at a time, which requires multiple clicks. Selling whole albums in one go, even at a discount, is a very smart move. Most albums put out there tend to have only one or two songs that a listener really loves. The rest of the songs are just filler. Having to purchase one at a time reminds users that they are spending money with every click, and they’ll be less likely to buy every song if they’re not really sure they want it. Offer the whole album at a discount, and suddenly the whole enchilada looks more appealing. A user who might otherwise spend a dollar or two on their favorite song only just spent ten times that amount to get a package deal. It’s a very old marketing trick, one that applies particularly well to online purchases.

Enter the Amazon MP3 Downloader. You can buy the albums they offer, but there’s a catch: you must download this bit of software and install it on your computer. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. But they sure don’t tell you much about what’s buried in the code. It’s not necessary to use an application to download a bundle of MP3 files. So why does it need to be on your machine? Why would Amazon bother to design a piece of software that, strictly speaking, isn’t actually needed? The answer is that it’s probably going to watch what you do and report back to Amazon. Beauty has become the Beast. Amazon’s compilation of customer ratings is one of the most helpful and powerful tools in online shopping. But if they’ve taken it beyond voluntary participation, that’s a problem.

Now, it’s nice to see that Amazon is offering Linux users an option. But here’s the bigger question: what kind of Linux user is going to install something that tells you virtually nothing about how intrusive it might be on your system. Linux users are who they are because they like to control what is on their system and keep it nice and tidy. Amazon is sorely mistaken if they think control freaks of that degree will install a potential spyware application on their machine for a few paltry dollars in savings. Here’s all it tells users about what it does:

• It automatically adds your music downloads to iTunes or Windows Media Player
• It takes just a few clicks and less than 30 seconds to install

Sweet and easy, right? A little too sweet and easy. Part of the beauty of Amazon is its brilliant use of user-generated content to help shoppers find what they need. I’m happy to log in, leave reviews, and put stars next to things I own. Because it only exists within the Amazon-owned account. That account isn’t tied to my machine or my identity. It doesn’t keep track of anything that I don’t voluntarily surrender, and I can see exactly what I’ve given them. But I have no way to know what the Amazon MP3 Downloader does once it’s in my system.

Amazon seems to be hoping people won’t think about this. They tell you “It is required for album purchases, and makes downloading songs fast and easy.” The average user, they hope, will simply say, “Fast and easy . . . and I save a few dollars per album. Okay!” And then they’ve traded access to their machine for a few pennies. Even if the information collected by Amazon through such an application was used for purely benevolent purposes– enhancing their recommendations based on what MP3 buyers already own, for example– that doesn’t change the fact that they’d be doing it without your permission.

My suspicion may be without foundation. But right now the Terms and Conditions on this little baby don’t breathe a word about protecting you. Until Amazon puts something on their website clearly articulating that the application does not take a look around and see what’s on your computer or track what you do, I will not trust this application. Until then, I’ll happily part with $3.88 in order to preserve my privacy.