And today we're counting down our picks for the 10 dark secrets Amazon doesn't want you to know.

I know you got your Amazon melt man's come back.

Not a sight for this list.

We're looking at some sinister supposed facts about this retail giant.

Looks like I got a couple packages from Amazon for you.

Oh, is that so?

Number 10 spend, Spend.

Spend a record breaking $1.5 billion worth of merchandise is expected to have been ordered online today, and no one ships more orders than Amazon.

If you're an Amazon fan, one of the things you probably like most about the site is how inexpensive everything seems.

Why would you buy dish soap from a local store when you can get a cheaper on Amazon and have it shipped to your house for free?

But the reality is Amazon allegedly has its cellars raised the price of items that are being sent to prime members to make up the cost of free shipping.

According to more than one lawsuit, with the use of one click ordering, they can convince you to shop without over thinking your purchase.

It is the hot video game.

I'm gonna order it.

Some of these strategies work so well that the average prime member spends $1500 a year on the site as of 2016.

Amazon recently added a small army of extra workers in these fulfillment centers.

Just tow handle the holidays.

Number nine.

They've been accused of spying on you.

Let's turn down the thermostat.

Okay, Turning down thermostats.

Amazon has brought us into the future in so many ways.

And with the Alexa virtual assistant we can feel is if we have a helpful robot in the house, like in SciFi shows.

How are you doing road?

Just cleaning the rug, man, she can tell us.

The weather answer are pressing trivia questions and, of course, reorder items from Amazon.

For us, Echo is connected to Alexa, a cloud based voice service, so it can help out with all sorts of useful information right when you need it.

But following an inquiry from US Senator Chris Coons in 2018 Amazon confirmed that the keep recordings of users voices until they're manually deleted by the user and the text transcripts of those recordings may be kept forever.

We could only imagine how useful it would be for the site to keep track of our likes and dislikes in order to market products.

To us, it really is a vacuum in terms of its ability to take a CZ much data as possible, identify it in the hopes of then finding stuff they can sell you.

Number eight pricing millions of changes per day to the pricing of the items on its site, and some individual items even get more than one price change in a single day.

When you're shopping on Amazon, you'll probably notice that there's the sale price, which is what you'll pay, and the list price.

The list price is supposedly the retail cost of the product.

Amazon has the shipping and ordering process down to an exact science, but evidence has shown that these numbers are often overblown by vendors in order to make it seem like items are being sold at a steeper discount.

The Canadian version of the site was forced to pay the Competition Bureau a $1 million penalty fine and an additional $100,000 in costs for these dishonest marketing tactics.

they're going to be a lot of deals online, right up until Cybermonday number seven Amazons Effect on the publishing industry.

It's a company known for its competitiveness and its secrecy.

Remember when Amazon was mainly for buying books and how they've expanded?

But in the process, they've changed the publishing industry forever.

Many high profile authors, including Stephen King and John Grisham, were involved in a petition over agency praising, which demanded that the corporate giant leave room for authors and publishers to make a profit.

How would the E book pie be split?

And how would he books be priced?

And this disagreement had fundamental repercussions for the rest of the publishing industry, the petition stated quote.

We encourage Amazon in the strongest possible terms to stop harming the livelihood of the authors on whom it has built its business.

None of us neither readers nor authors, benefit when books were taken hostage.

No group of authors is diverse or prominent, as this has ever come together before in support of a single cause.

Collectively, we have sold more than a 1,000,000,000 books.

Amazons tactics have caused its profound anguish and outrage.

Not only that, but Amazon controls which books appear on its sales rankings.

And in 2009 the retailer came under fire when it categorized LGBTQ writings as adult there by stripping them of the all important sales rank.

So I think one thing the dispute displayed prominently is how important and powerful Amazon has become on the book publishing landscape.

Number six Environmental Record.

Amazon alone shipped over five billion packages to Prime in 2017 and in 2019 announced they're expanding their one day delivery service to over 10 million products, having items shipped to you in two days maybe convenient for shoppers.

But it can take a significant toll on the environment.

Anyone who's ordered from Amazon knows how much packaging is involved with any individual item, with small products often arriving in outside boxes.

For the most part, if you compare online shopping with safe driving to the store, online shopping has a smaller carbon footprint.

But there's a catch.

It's only better for the environment if you don't get a rush Delivery Employees of the company have protested their climate policy making demands such as aiming for zero emissions by 2030 and leaving behind their connections to oil and gas companies.

Amazon also provides funding to climate change deniers like a libertarian think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Republican politician Jim Inhofe.

Our group of Amazonian sze here we've all gathered together so that we can participate in this global climate strike on really show that Amazonian care about the climate.

We want change both from world leadership and from our company leadership.

We need to take action.

Thio avert climate crisis number five You might not own your Kindle books.

Amazon really has emerged as the premier book retailer.

When you buy an e book, you probably assume you own it forever like you would with any other non digital product.

But the reality is a little more complicated.

While the Kindle terms of service may state that Amazon quote grants you the non exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable digital content, there have been several instances of books being removed from people's accounts.

Many sources have found that if you dig through the fine print, you'll find that you actually are only licensing these books, and that's something that can be taken away at Amazon's discretion.

I think that's sort of a longer term battle that we'll have to unfold as we see how consumer e book prices fluctuate.

Number four.

Their business practices are creative, considering the company hardly had any annual profit until 2016.

This represents major growth.

Today they're earning over $10 billion a year.

But in the beginning, Amazon became famous for not turning a profit.

Some sources say this was all part of their business model and that they never intended to make a profit In the first few years of operation companies, turning a profit is is really interesting in the way that they're doing this.

Cos.

Famously avoided profits right.

They have taken every possible dime of profits and reinvested in the business.

As the theory goes, by not turning a profit, they were able to undercut prices in many different industries, convincing shoppers to switch from brick and mortar shops.

As each year passed, their profit margin steadily increased.

And while it's still actually modest, they've clearly found a way to earn the big bucks.

Anyway, it's Amazon.

The stock touching new all time Oz.

Number three taxes.

Did you pay federal income tax last year?

01 of biggest companies well paid none.

Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, right home law for Amazon in 2017.

In 2018 Amazon paid zero federal income tax despite its billions of dollars of profit.

Not only that, but they actually got millions of dollars in refunds.

How did they pull this off in years, when they were less profitable, they offset their future taxes in a move that has brought them plenty of criticism from across the political spectrum.

According to data compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Amazon had an effective federal tax rate of just 3% over 10 years.

They've also historically avoided charging sales tax whenever they can, which gave them an advantage over other businesses who were forced to charge their customers more.

But one thing is for sure.

It's quite normal for some corporations to pay no income tax to the federal government.

Is that a normal you're satisfied with?

Number two Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.

The Graham family sold The Washington Post for $250 million toe Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

If you're not already worried about Amazon, potentially having a monopoly on pretty much everything considered this.

Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, one of the most respected daily newspapers in the country.

The Post was purchased by Bezos in 2013 for $250 million in cash.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent a thunderbolt through the media world this week with surprise purchase of The Washington Post.

Technically, Nash Holdings LLC owns the paper, but that is run by Bezos.

He's reportedly not involved in day to day decision making.

But the fact that Bezos ultimately has control over this major media source is cause for concern to some, notably President Donald Trump, who has accused the post of lobbying on behalf of Amazon.

And if this wasn't enough, Amazon has entered into the world of food and now owns whole foods as well.

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Number one Working conditions Hundreds of employees on zero hours contract are subjected to a regime described as horrendous had exhausted.

By now, you've surely seen reports on the working situations facing Amazon employees on a daily basis, highlighting the supposedly intense physical conditions and unrealistic targets.

In 2019 the Daily Beast reported that there had even been suicide attempts by Amazon factory workers.

All of these issues and Maur have let employees to strike in several notable cases.

Plus over the years, Amazon has faced criticism from workers over their willingness to accommodate basic human needs, like using the bathroom.

Amazon has responded to all of these claims by making an effort to raise the company's minimum wage to $15 an hour, but at the same time, the eliminated bonuses and stock awards for hourly workers.

There is definitely a sense from people that we talked to that Amazon does not really care about their personal lives, can't reveal any weaknesses or you will be in trouble.

Do you agree with our picks?