An Amazon patent won’t let you check online prices from rival retailers inside stores

With Amazon’s push into brick-and-mortar stores, it seems they want to stop you from buying products online (at least from rivals) while you’re inside their establishments. The online retailer has been granted a patent for “controlling online shopping within a physical store or retail location.” So, if you use the in-store Wi-Fi at an Amazon-owned store, your browsing will be monitored and blocked if you visit a competing retailer’s site. It’s basically like a firewall for accessing specific URLs or web addresses. One way to circumvent that, though, is by using your mobile data to do some comparison shopping. It is a patent so there isn’t any way to find out whether Amazon will use the technology yet.

Source: CNET + ZDNet