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April 22, 2020 06:09 pm
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tGUf8XXstMo/people-are-making-bots-to-snatch-whole-foods-delivery-order-time-slots
People Are Making Bots To Snatch Whole Foods Delivery Order Time Slots
Social distancing and stay-home orders have led to booming demand for grocery delivery services. In some big cities, people report not being able to find an open delivery time slot for days or weeks at a time. And now Motherboard has found a series of bots that automatically give some people an upper hand when limited delivery time slots are available on Amazon Fresh or Wholefoods. From a report: A slew of developers have made bots and other tools that, in some cases, automatically hunt for a free delivery slot, grab it, and then complete the user's food order, making sure they have a much better chance of buying food before other people snatch up the slot. While some of the developers told Motherboard they designed their bots to help those in need, such as senior citizens who may need to stay inside as exposure to the coronavirus could be more serious for them, others are dealing with the ethical issue of releasing a tool that can clearly be abused, by allowing those who can figure out how to use a technical tool to buy food while others go without. "Yes, it's an unfair advantage over others who aren't tech-savvy but may still need to purchase items urgently. However, I try my best to reduce the abused [sic] problem," Manfong, the developer behind a Chrome extension that notifies users when a delivery slot is available, told Motherboard in an email. Checkout bots, often reserved for buying things like limited edition sneakers or concert tickets, are in particularly high demand at the moment for other items. Last week Motherboard reported how one developer had created a bot dedicated to buying the Nintendo Switch, with resellers grabbing as many as they can to sell for a profit during the crisis. Now, that idea of getting a technical one-up over others has expanded to buying essential items such as food.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tGUf8XXstMo/people-are-making-bots-to-snatch-whole-foods-delivery-order-time-slots
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