Amazon is giving the police video taken by private homeowners’ Amazon Ring doorbells not only without a warrant, not only without the consent of the homeowner, but without even the knowledge of the homeowner! And what Amazon has to say about the program is stunning. The Internet Patrol obtained the letter that Amazon sent to Senator Markey in response to Markey’s alarmed request to Amazon for disclosure, and what Amazon has disclosed is, frankly, frightening. Amazon’s Ring Neighbors app includes a ‘Neighbors Public Safety Service’ (NPSS) component, and through that portal a total of 2,161 law enforcement agencies have joined the Ring Neighbor app (so far), as have 455 fire departments. You can think of the Ring Neighbor app as being like Nextdoor, but specifically for Ring Doorbell owners. And, increasingly, the police. However unlike Nextdoor, Amazon is handing over private homeowners’ videos to the police without a warrant, and they’ve done it nearly a dozen times in the first half of 2022 alone. And they clearly fully intend to keep doing it.

With very little warning, Amazon has announced that in 2 weeks they will start charging third-party sellers who sell on Amazon a surcharge of 5% as a “fuel and inflation” surcharge. Not even just little warning, but with little fanfare; in fact the only place that Amazon has posted a statement about it is with a post on Amazon’s “Seller Central” hub, slipping it onto the site as quietly as a knife going into..well, you get the point.

Millions of Amazon Prime customers received the below letter this week, detailing the Amazon Prime price increase from $119 to $139 a year, and from $12.99 to $14.99 a month for the monthly plan. No you can’t get around it, no you can’t buy yourself an Amazon Prime gift card at the old rate (despite many sites saying that you can). According to the letter from Amazon “The new prices, plus applicable taxes, will apply after March 25, 2022, on the date of your next renewal.” However, the new rates are actually effective today, February 18th, 2022. Confused? You won’t be, read on.

The Amazon billing and fraud prevention scam is back in full force, along with the Apple advisor “your iCloud account has been breached” scam. Each of these scams rely on pre-recorded calls to your phone, and then enticing you to call the “Amazon billing and fraud prevention” department, or an “Apple support advisor,” respectively.

Here is a sneaky way that Amazon can end up refunding you less than your purchase price for an item that you have returned. Actually there are a couple of ways that you can end up being refunded less than what you paid, but one of them is particularly sneaky, and there is really only one way to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you, which is, unfortunately, not great for the environment.

A reader has alerted us that Amazon double charged their debit card for orders for which they had already been charged and had already paid! They found the duplicate Amazon charges when “I went to see what had caused my bank account to become overdrawn, and imagine my shock to see that Amazon had just charged me again for two orders for which I had already been charged and paid!” They went on to say that Amazon had immediately then refunded the charges, but that didn’t help the fact that their account had become overdrawn, triggering their overdraft protection, for which they are charged interest!

What do the different fulfillment, shipping and delivery options mean at Amazon? Prime delivery, sold by, shipped from, FBA, if you shop on Amazon (and who doesn’t these days?) you will be confronted by a dizzying array of shipping, fulfilled by and delivery options. Here’s what they mean to you, the consumer.

If you have ever been surprised to see images of yourself showing up on the screen of your Alexa Echo Show or Echo Look, you are probably trying to figure out how to remove those images, and you’re also probably realizing that it’s not easy to find that information. So let us make it easy for you: here is how to delete those personal pictures from an Alexa Echo device.

If you receive what appears to be an Amazon gift card in the mail (in your actual mailbox), exhorting you to “scratch and match” and call a number like 855-544-9400 or 855-270-6163 or another 855 number, DON’T DO IT! This scam from “PTL” is a ploy to get your personal details and then get you into a local business where you can be pressured to part with your money.

Amazon Sidewalk automatically uses a bit of your wireless network to create a mesh network with nearby Alexa and Ring devices. Amazon is enabling it automatically for all devices (old and new), so you have to disable it if you won’t want your neighbors’ Amazon devices using your wireless network.

Here’s what to do if you get a reminder from Amazon reminding you to return an item to avoid charges, but you have already returned it.

If you have the Amazon Prime Store Card or the Amazon Store Card, you may be wondering just how to find the expiration date, or how to add it to your Amazon account as a payment option. You also may be wondering just how to make a payment, because you don’t do it through Amazon. Here’s how to do all of these things.

Here is how to cancel an Amazon Prime tv channel subscription, like Acorn or Comedy Central, because Amazon doesn’t make it obvious.

Can’t find how to turn on instant SMS text message notifications for Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods deliveries? Here’s why.

Amazon Pharmacy accepts insurance and delivers your prescriptions to you, putting Amazon in direct competition with other pharmacies.