Elderus Monitor Beta
A safeguard for online shopping, built for families managing memory loss.
Elderus Monitor shows you what a parent is buying on Amazon and lets you set limits that pause a purchase before it goes through. You stay informed. They keep their dignity.
Why we built it
The packages keep arriving, and no one remembers ordering them.
One of the ways Alzheimer's shows up is compulsive shopping. A parent orders the same thing six times in a week. Hundreds of dollars go out at three in the morning. By the next day there is no memory of any of it — but the charges are real and the boxes are at the door.
The advice families get is blunt: take away the credit cards, change the Wi-Fi password, tell them the internet is down. Each of these works by taking something away from a person who has already lost enough.
We built Elderus Monitor because the choice shouldn't be between a parent's finances and their independence. A caregiver can see what's happening and decide, purchase by purchase, when to let something through and when to step in — without stripping away the ordinary dignity of ordering a book or a bag of coffee.
How it works
Two components — a monitor for them and a dashboard for you.
A browser extension on your parent's computer, and a private dashboard for you. Setup takes about five minutes and a six-digit pairing code. It's a low-stakes way to begin — no account for them to manage, nothing for them to remember.
On their computer
The extension observes Amazon shopping in Chrome. It notes what's in the cart and what gets ordered, and it does its work quietly in the background until you adjust the protection settings.
On your dashboard
You see the activity as it happens, set the rules that matter for your family, and approve or decline the purchases that get held for review — from your own phone or laptop, wherever you are.
Start by watching. For the first few days Elderus Monitor sets no limits — it simply shows you the real pattern, so the rules you write later fit the situation in front of you instead of a guess. When you're ready, a gate can do one of three things at checkout:
Gate 1 — Pause and wait
A calm screen asks them to wait a few minutes before continuing. Often the impulse passes on its own. If it doesn't, they can still go ahead.
Gate 2 — Hold for approval
The purchase waits until you approve or decline it from your dashboard. Useful for larger amounts, or for a stretch when things are difficult.
Gate 3 — Simulated checkout
For advancing impairment, where being blocked causes real distress, the order can appear to complete while nothing is actually bought or charged. A caregiver decision, made with eyes open — explained in full below.
Limits
What Elderus Monitor does not do.
A tool that oversells itself is worse than no tool, because you stop watching. Here is what Elderus Monitor cannot see, stated plainly.
It watches Amazon in the Chrome browser on ONE computer. It does not see the Amazon phone app, a tablet, a smart speaker, a different browser, or another computer. Shopping that happens somewhere else, like on a phone or tablet, happens out of view of this tool.
Occasionally Amazon will change the structure of its pages, which in turn may break Elderus Monitor's ability to track browse and cart activity. We will continue to make updates to Elderus Monitor to keep up with Amazon's changes, but we want to set expectations here that this will be a perpetual work in progress.
Our goal for Elderus Monitor is to provide you, the caregiver, with a layer of visibility and friction. It is not a lock, a legal guardianship, or a substitute for a caregiver's judgment or a bank/credit card's own controls.
Think of it as one more set of eyes, not the only one.
Privacy
It only watches the checkout.
Monitoring a person you love is a serious thing, and the tool that does it should collect as little as possible. Elderus Monitor only ever runs on Amazon. It reads the product, the price, and the cart total — the facts a purchasing rule needs, and nothing more.
It does not touch email, banking, health, or any other website. It takes no screenshots, records no keystrokes, and keeps no browsing history. This isn't a promise you have to take on faith — the extension is limited to Amazon at the code level, and that limit can be read straight from the file that defines it.
A word about simulated checkout
The honest case for a gentle fiction.
For someone in the later stages of dementia, a screen that blocks a purchase can read as an accusation, and set off real fear or agitation. Dementia care has a name for the kinder path — therapeutic fibbing — where you meet the person in the reality they're living in rather than forcing them back into yours.
Simulated checkout is that idea, applied narrowly. The order appears to go through. Nothing is bought. Nothing is charged. No confirmation email is sent. The moment passes, and the person is spared the distress.
It is never on by default. A caregiver has to turn it on and acknowledge what it does, and we encourage talking it through with your loved one's doctor first. Your dashboard always records the plain truth: a purchase was simulated, and no money moved. The fiction lives only on their screen, never in your records.
Getting access
Elderus Monitor is in limited beta.
We're working with a small number of families before opening it up more widely, so we can watch it hold up in real homes and fix what needs fixing. If you're caring for someone and this sounds like your situation, we'd like to hear from you.
We’ll only use your email to talk with you about the Elderus Monitor beta.
Elderus Monitor is a Beta product. It provides directional visibility into Amazon.com purchasing on desktop Chrome browsers. It is not a guarantee that a purchase will be detected or prevented, and it is not a substitute for direct supervision, professional care, legal guardianship, or a bank's own financial controls. Amazon's website can change at any time, which affects what Elderus Monitor is able to read. Use it at your own discretion.