Recently, some users have discovered a surprising level of personal information stored by the American e-commerce giant Amazon in their shopping profiles. Besides shopping preferences, these profiles also include details such as “flat buttocks” and “lack of friends.”
According to ConsumerAffairs, in May of this year, Amazon launched the “About You” feature, allowing users to view the personal preference data created by the platform based on their shopping, browsing, and other activities.
Amazon analyzes users’ shopping records, searches, product reviews, wish lists, and conversations with its voice assistant Alexa for Shopping to infer their interests, brand preferences, and family situations for product recommendations.
Previously reported by the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes, a woman found in her shopping profile the description of her having “flat buttocks.” She speculated that this was related to a pair of lifting buttocks leggings she had purchased before.
After sharing her discovery on the social media platform Threads, other users also began sharing the contents of their profiles. According to the tech media outlet The Verge, some found descriptions in their data such as “having no friends,” “can’t even keep plants alive,” “treats their cat like a biological child,” and “swears when scared.”
Apart from displaying Amazon’s perceived personal preferences, “About You” also allows users to supplement their personal information themselves.
Amazon users can access the “Me” page in the mobile app, click on their name, and choose “About You.” For consumers using a computer, they can go to the “Account & Lists” menu in the top right corner of the website, click on their name or select the shopping profile, and enter “About You.”
Users can also ask the voice assistant Alexa, “What do you know about me?”
Amazon states that users can modify or delete inaccurate personal preferences that they do not want to be used for product recommendations. However, deleting this personal preference data does not mean that related shopping or browsing data will also be deleted.