Date: November 30, 2018
Contact: mediacenter@freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org
They Said It!
Amazon’s HQ2 Sham Was Always About The Data
“This was a mass data vacuuming effort to scarf up a lot of data about dozens of other places that they will likely want to locate smaller units.”
Amazon strung along cities destined to lose its bidding war for HQ2 as a way to gain a competitive advantage and “scarf up a lot of data.”
“These antics were doubly beneficial to Amazon, since they generated free promotion and contributed to a treasure trove of data about cities where the company might later want to plant warehouses, Whole Foods stores, or surveillance technology. ‘A less charitable view is that this was a mass data vacuuming effort to scarf up a lot of data about dozens of other places that they will likely want to locate smaller units,’ [Senior Fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution Mark] Muro says.” (The Ringer, “The Cities That Amazon HQ2 Left Behind,” Victor Luckerson, November 30, 2018)
To read the full article, click here.
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The Free & Fair Markets Initiative (FFMI) is a non-profit coalition of businesses, consumer advocacy groups, workers and community activists committed to scrutinizing and highlighting emerging market trends that are stifling competition and innovation, influencing federal and local government spending, putting consumer data in harm’s way and limiting consumer choice. For a list of members, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org/about-us/members/. For more information on the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org.
