Prime members, who pay $139 annually for the subscription, will now enjoy zero delivery fees on orders over $12.

Previously, Amazon Prime members were offered a free one-year subscription to Grubhub Plus, which auto-renewed at $129 per year. Now, this benefit is permanently included with Prime membership. 

Amazon states that the ordering experience on its platform is similar to that of Grubhub’s website and app, making it accessible to all customers, even those without Prime.

In addition to free delivery, Prime members can also avail themselves of other Grubhub+ perks, such as reduced service fees, 5% credit back on pick-up orders, and exclusive offers. 

A special promotion is also available — Prime members can get $5 off their Grubhub meal order of $25 or more using the code “PRIME5” through June 2.

Jamil Ghani, Vice President of Amazon Prime, highlighted the value of this new benefit, noting that Prime members can save greatly on food delivery alongside other Prime perks, which include Prime Video, Amazon Music, and premium add-ons like RxPass and grocery delivery services from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.

Howard Migdal, CEO of Grubhub, is optimistic about the expanded partnership, pointing to the convenience and value it brings to Amazon customers, allowing them to order from Grubhub’s wide network of restaurants directly through Amazon’s platforms.

Prime members can activate this ongoing Grubhub+ offer by visiting the website. Since the inception of the Grubhub+ benefit in 2022, Prime members have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in waived subscription fees and discounts, with those placing at least one order a month saving an average of $300 annually on delivery fees and promotions.

Beyond the new food delivery perks, Amazon Prime continues to offer a wide range of benefits. Members enjoy free shipping on more than 300 million items, including Same-Day and One-Day Delivery on tens of millions of popular products. 

Prime members also gain access to exclusive shopping events such as Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days. The Prime Video service provides lots of movie collections, series, and live sports, including content produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

In addition to entertainment, Amazon Music offers ad-free listening to over 100 million songs and millions of podcast episodes. For healthcare needs, Amazon Pharmacy provides prescription medications as low as $1 per month with free shipping. 

Grocery delivery is also a perk, with free two-hour delivery windows on orders over $100 from Amazon Fresh, along with subscription-based delivery options from Whole Foods Market and other local retailers.

Prime Gaming grants members instant access to free games, a free Twitch channel subscription, and more gaming benefits. Prime Reading allows access to over 3,000 books and magazines. Furthermore, Prime members benefit from an ongoing free membership to Grubhub+, which includes $0 delivery fees on eligible orders over $12.

Anyone can join Prime for $14.99 per month or $139 per year. New users can start a free 30-day trial via the website. Discounted memberships are available for young adults, college students, and qualifying government assistance recipients.

A new study by crypto tax software CoinLedger reveals that the retail & e-commerce sector has the highest number of companies that offer the option to purchase through cryptocurrency.

The study compiled a list of 400 major companies listed by BitPay as accepting cryptocurrency methods and categorized them into sectors, to discover which one contains the most companies offering crypto as a payment method.

Retail & e-commerce take first place with a total of 76 companies accepting crypto payments. The sector includes clothing and accessories stores like Adidas, Yankee Candle and H&M, as well as online shopping platforms such as Etsy.

The food & dining sector follows closely in second with 72 companies. Examples are Chipotle, Chuck E Cheese’s, Domino’s and Hard Rock Café, and delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Different services became available gradually in different countries: Burger King Venezuela has been accepting Bitcoin payments since 2020.

New additions to this list are the Grubhub conglomerate, for which you can purchase gift cards with crypto, and various stand-alone pubs and restaurants around the world such as The Pink Cow in Tokyo and Pembury Tavern in London.

Travel & hospitality comes in third with 38 companies accepting crypto payments. These range from commercial airlines such as Norwegian Air and Vueling to private jet hire like Fast Private Jet, LunaJets and PrivateFly.

Cruise companies Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises are also on the list, as well as trip-organizing help sites like GetYourGuide.

Further down on the list, luxury retail is fourth with 35 companies offering the service, among which there are high fashion brands Gucci and Ralph Lauren, luxuryx watches retailer Hublot, as well as jewelers such as Jewelry Affairs and CRM Jewelers.

The top five closes with internet & online services companies, as 32 accept crypto as a form of payment. These companies offer a service available to use online from our phones and laptops, such as Google Play and Spotify, and different VPN services like CyberGhostVPN, ExpressVPN and FrootVPN.

David Kemmerer, co-founder and CEO of CoinLedger commented on the findings: “The increasing number of companies accepting cryptocurrency payments reflects the growing acceptance and adoption of digital currencies in the mainstream economy.

“This trend not only aligns with the evolving preferences of tech-savvy consumers but also offers benefits such as reduced transaction fees and increased security. From major retailers to small businesses, the diversification of sectors embracing cryptocurrencies demonstrates the versatility and potential of blockchain technology. As this trend continues, it’s likely to contribute to the broader acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate form of payment, paving the way for a more decentralized and accessible financial landscape.”

Key Findings

• Shopping and food delivery apps, notably Amazon Shopping and Wish, are the most data-hungry among various app categories.
• Amazon Shopping collects the most data points in its category, while Wish leads in linking and tracking user data.
• On average, shopping and delivery apps collect 21 out of 32 possible data points, with 95% linked to the user’s identity.
• Facebook and Instagram top the list of privacy-invasive apps, collecting all 32 data points, as defined by Apple.

The research highlights shopping and food delivery apps, particularly Amazon Shopping and Wish, as leading categories in user data collection, posing significant privacy concerns.

More than a third of shopping & food delivery category apps’ data is tracked (such as shared with a third-party advertising network or data brokers).

Research is aided by a free App privacy checker tool where users can select the specific apps they have on their phone and receive a report on the extent of data collection.

“Analyzing 100 popular apps on the App Store, we’ve found a concerning trend: nearly 20% of collected data is used for tracking. Such tracked data can be shared with third-party advertisers or data brokers, who use it to deliver personalized ads targeting the users, or aid companies in market research,” says Agneska Sablovskaja, Lead Researcher at Surfshark. “Understanding an app’s privacy policy is crucial for safeguarding digital autonomy.”

Shopping and food delivery apps collect more data points than average  

On average, shopping and delivery apps collect 21 out of 32 possible data points. Moreover, these apps link the most data to the user — 95% of collected data points are linked to the user’s identity.

According to the data privacy trends report, such apps tend to use collected data to track the user the most — a third of collected data points are used for these purposes.

Wish could be named the most data-hungry app within shopping & food delivery apps category, collecting 24 out of 32 data points, linking almost all data points to the user’s identity, and using over a third of data to track its users. That’s considerably more than the average of 15 collected data points across all 100 examined apps.

Around 40% of data points collected by Wish and DoorDash are used to track the user, like email address, precise location, and purchase history.

Out of the analyzed shopping & food delivery apps, only one — Amazon — does not use data to track its users. But it collects most of the unique data about the user (25 of 32 possible data points), and also, also all the collected data is linked to the user’s identity.

If we look at food delivery apps specifically, Uber Eats stands out as tracking (sharing with third parties) the most data points out of the collected (12 out of 21), such as phone number, physical address, search history and more.

GrubHub tracks 11, Instacart – 10. 10 analyzed Shopping & food delivery apps were: Amazon Shopping, eBay Marketplace, AliExpress, Etsy, Wish. DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Deliveroo, Instacart.

Around half of the 100 analyzed apps collect search history and precise location

1523 data points are collected across 100 of the most popular apps. Statistically speaking, that’s an average of 15 unique data points per app out of the 32 unique data points defined by Apple.

Around 90% of the apps collect usage, diagnostic, and identifier data such as product interaction, user ID, device ID, crash and performance data. Most are essential for their app functionality.

Two-thirds of the apps collect your name and coarse location, and nearly half collect your precise location.

Coarse location is a more general estimation of where you are, while precise location is more detailed and accurate. Over a third of the apps collect your contacts, and a fifth collect your emails or text messages and browsing history.

Facebook and Instagram are the two most privacy-invasive apps. Both apps collect all 32 data points defined by Apple and are the only two to do so. Signal is also the only social media and messaging app to  make the top 10 most privacy-sensitive list.

It is the second least data-hungry app, collecting just 1 data point (phone number) that is not linked to you or used to track you.

Before downloading apps, it is recommended to check the developer’s reputation and data retention policies and pay attention to constant permission requests to access contact list, camera, storage, location, and microphone and limit the app’s access to information only when the app is in use.