The beauty of the internet is that almost everything is at our fingertips – including old and new prices on anything from household items to computers and devices.

The old switcheroo

A common sales tactic in today's market is the price guarantee, enabling customers to earn a refund for the difference in price if the goods they purchase drops in value.

It's basically a safeguard tactic for stores, superseding the strategy of listing high prices, then discounting goods to satisfy customers that they're getting a good deal.

But now the mighty Amazon has cracked down on the price guarantee in the face of startup companies that allow customers to take advantage of the website's terms and conditions.

Price match this

Internet sleuths on Reddit first alerted the wider community to the change, with some blaming the likes of Earny and Paribus, startups that automatically request price-difference refunds from Amazon by tapping into a user's Amazon account and email inbox.

Amazon didn't confirm they had made a change to their policy. Rather, the company reiterated that said policy has always allowed customers to be granted an exception if they asked for a refund on most products – and many requests are now being denied.

"We take customer security very seriously and want to remind them not to share their Amazon account credentials with anyone," an Amazon spokeswoman told Recode.

With technology comes great responsibility, and Amazon says even goodwill doesn't trump safety.