• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

3

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

3

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
TechAmazon

Alexa, I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About Amazon’s Emotion-Detecting Wearable

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 23, 2019, 5:47 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

From video streaming to prescriptions, cloud services to doorbell cameras, Amazon is in our lives in more ways than we count. But there’s one particular place—my emotional health—where I really don’t want the e-commerce giant poking around.

Amazon is working on an Alexa-powered wearable that can read emotions, Bloomberg is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the company’s plans. Using microphones and artificial intelligence to identify how we’re feeling, Amazon would be able to collect emotion information and perhaps share it with other health products, Bloomberg’s sources say.

But Amazon’s plan goes beyond that.

Bloomberg’s sources also say that Amazon’s device would use the emotion data to serve relevant ads or product recommendations to people based on their emotional state. So, if a person is feeling happy, they might see one ad or a particular product recommendation. If another person is feeling sad, fearful, angry, or any number of other emotions, they’d get different recommendations better suit their mood.

The science of this ad play suggests Amazon might be on to something. In 2016, Nielsen research revealed that ads that considered human emotion and elicited an emotional response generated a 23% gain in sales volume, compared to those that didn’t include emotional elements.

“Emotions are central to advertising effectiveness,” Nielsen said. In other words, the more companies understand about how you’re feeling in any moment, the more effective they can be in advertising to you.

Amazon told Fortune in an e-mailed statement that the company doesn’t “comment on rumors or speculation.”

Yet for many consumers, wearing a device that logs smiles instead of miles could be a step too far, even for the most tech-obsessed among us. A wearable that reads emotions could work well for targeting ads, but what happens if it says you’re feeling stressed when you’re not, or detects happiness when you’re really down? It could make you question your own feelings.

As someone who firmly believes in therapy, evaluating one’s emotions, and digging into the things that really bothers us, I know how hard it is to identify and understand what we’re truly feeling in a moment. What makes Amazon think it can do a good job of understanding our emotions, when we often struggle to identify them, ourselves?

Alexandros Potamianos disagrees. The chief technology officer at Behavioral Signals, he thinks that emotional knowledge can have positive effects on humans. And he’s so bullish on the topic that his company is building a platform for virtual assistants, robots, and other technologies to incorporate emotional intelligence in their features.

“Emotion recognition… can work, and can prove a useful tool in the relationship between humans and machines,” Potamianos says, adding that there’s a bright future for targeting people with ads based on their emotions.

“We can definitely see potential in ads if they are appropriately sensitive and aware of the person’s feelings,” he says. “Suggesting to a person, feeling stressed, a good podcast to listen to, or a book to read, might not be a bad idea.”

Alexa, get out of my head

But what about privacy implications? It’s one thing to know my interests and the websites I visit for targeting ads. But do I really want someone to know my emotions?

It was just a month ago, after all, that Bloomberg reported that Amazon employees monitor the things people bark into their Echo devices to improve Alexa’s responses.

“We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously,” an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg at the time. “We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order [to] improve the customer experience.”

Would Amazon or any other company that might look at capturing human emotions need to evaluate emotional data to make the service work better? It’s unclear, but it would seem likely.

Still, Potamianos believes there’s nothing to worry about.

“Every new technology gives rise to fears, but [Behavioral Signals] believe[s] regulators will eventually step in to protect the consumer,” he says. Potamianos also cautioned that any potential good could far outweigh the bad.

The problem with that logic, of course, is that tech companies have never been fans of regulation. And in occasions where regulators want to step in, most tech companies balk. Even Facebook, which earlier this year called for more regulation, was criticized by many industry watchers for not going far enough in the regulations it could swallow.

Potamianos argues the good in emotional awareness can outweigh the bad. And he ultimately believes it can improve lives.

“Think of the possibilities for people with mental health issues or elderly people in distress,” he says.

I have. And Alexa, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
NewslettersCIO Intelligence
How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
By John KellJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIAnthropic
Anthropic’s AI models are back online after a two-week government standoff—settling the company and administration into a fragile truce
By Tristan BoveJuly 1, 2026
3 hours ago
Nikesh Arora, chief executive officer at Palo Alto Networks
SuccessJobs
CEO of $248 billion cybersecurity company says workers are about to face a ‘Darwinian moment’ thanks to AI: Evolve or get cut
By Emma BurleighJuly 1, 2026
5 hours ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
7 hours ago
In this photo illustration, a Cisco logo is displayed on a smartphone with Artificial Intellingence (AI) symbols in the background.
AICFO Daily
Cisco is rolling out AI agents to every single one of its 90,000 employees
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 1, 2026
7 hours ago
senate
CommentaryCongress
One rare bipartisan AI bill is moving through Congress. Here’s why it deserves to pass
By Neil Björkman and Betsy BrewerJuly 1, 2026
9 hours ago

Most Popular

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
13 hours ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
4 days ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
2 days ago
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
Newsletters
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
11 hours ago
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
Commentary
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
By Marc AndersenJune 30, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.