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Please vote on www.kdnuggets.com and comment.

This poll was motivated by Amazon.com recent patent No. 6,865,546, entitled "Methods and systems of assisting users in purchasing items."

In plain language, this patent offers a method for estimating the age, gender, and birthday of a gift recipient, using the order history of gifts purchased by a customer for that recipient. For example, if in May 2003 I buy a toy appropriate for a boy age 2, and in May 2004 I buy a toy appropriate for a boy age 3, then Amazon can infer that I am buying gifts for a boy whose birthday is in May 2001, and suggest for me in May 2005 (via email or web), an appropriate gift for a boy age 4.

See more in New Scientist.

This patent was immediately criticized by privacy advocates:

"People who log onto Amazon and buy something give up their personal information voluntarily, explained Karen Coyle of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. But "if someone sends you a gift, you haven't agreed to give up your information, so it's gathering information about people who have not agreed to becustomers."

"If you look at the patent and you look at what they're gathering, all the information is being gathered about age-appropriate products," she told TechNewsWorld. "There's really no such thing as age-appropriate products for adults."

Gathering information about children for an online retailer like Amazon can be dicey because that practice is regulated by federal law, the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act, or COPPA.

Here is the rest of the story.