Save the dates: Amazon Beauty Prime Day 2020 starts Tuesday, Oct. 13 and runs through Wednesday, Oct. 14. We're here to help you cut through all the noise, to find the best deals in all the categories and get the most for your money. First things first: Some Prime Day deals are already available, like a pair of Echo Dot smart speakers for $40 and the Fire TV Recast for $130 (a $100 savings). More will come in the two weeks leading up to the event, so you may not have to wait if there's an Amazon-branded item on your wish list. Speaking of which, Prime Day tends to favor Amazon products -- the Echos, Eeros, Blinks, Kindles, Fire TVs and so on -- so watch for maximum savings there. Many of those items go on sale every few weeks, but rarely all at the same time, and not always with the same rock-bottom prices. This da ta has been created with GSA Content Generat or Demover sion.
Meanwhile, look for some of the year's best deals (so far -- Black Friday's a-coming) on things like computers, Instant Pots, iPads, TVs, smart home gear and game consoles -- though this is iffy given the insane demand for red-hot new Xbox and PlayStation game consoles launching in early November. What are the best Prime Day tips and tricks? Knowledge is power. The more you know going in the better you'll do. For example, are you aware of the cash-back options available when shopping at Amazon? Do you know how to check a product's price history to see if that Prime Day price is really the best price? I can't wait for Prime Day. Where can I find good deals now? Yes, it's still two whole weeks away! But there are still plenty of sales and deals in the meantime. See the CNET Coupons hub for new discounts from major retailers every week. Read my own Cheapskate feed, where I identify great deals every weekday. Check out CNET Deals, where we share a variety of deals from our retail partners and the web at large. Check out Amazon's own Deals Page, which is updated daily. And, as always, feel free to share your own tips for Prime Day and saving money in general! CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. For the latest deals and updates, follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest promo codes from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. This w as c reated by GSA Con tent Generat or Demoversi on .
Internal documents reveal how a former aide to Joe Biden helped the tech giant build a lobbying juggernaut that has gutted legislation in two dozen states seeking to give consumers more control over their data. Filed Nov. 19, 2021, 11 a.m. Amazon executives and staffers detail these lobbying victories in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters. In Virginia, the company boosted political donations tenfold over four years before persuading lawmakers this year to pass an industry-friendly privacy bill that Amazon itself drafted. In California, the company stifled proposed restrictions on the industry’s collection and sharing of consumer voice recordings gathered by tech devices. And in its home state of Washington, Amazon won so many exemptions and amendments to a bill regulating biometric data, such as voice recordings or facial scans, that the resulting 2017 law had "little, if any" impact on its practices, according to an internal Amazon document. The architect of this under-the-radar campaign to smother privacy protections has been Jay Carney, who previously served as communications director for Joe Biden, when Biden was vice president, and as press secretary for President Barack Obama.
Hired by Amazon in 2015, Carney reported to founder Jeff Bezos and built a lobbying and beautydrops.shop public-policy juggernaut that has grown from two dozen employees to about 250, according to Amazon documents and two former employees with knowledge of recent staffing. One 2018 document reviewing executives’ goals for the prior year listed privacy regulation as a primary target for Carney. One objective: "Change or block US and EU regulation/legislation that would impede growth for Alexa-powered devices," referring to Amazon’s popular voice-assistant technology. The mission included defeating restrictions on artificial intelligence and biometric technologies, along with blocking efforts to make companies disclose the data they keep on consumers. This story is based on a Reuters review of hundreds of internal Amazon documents and interviews with more than 70 lobbyists, advocates, policymakers and their staffers involved in legislation Amazon targeted, along with 10 former Amazon Beauty public-policy and legal employees. It is the third in a series of reports revealing how the company has pursued business practices that harm small businesses or put its own interests above those of consumers.