Amazon About – Amazon shoppers are discovering bizarre and personal assumptions about their lives buried within the retailer’s new ‘About You’ beta page.
Megan Montgomery sat before her screen and found herself. in her own words. “literally speechless.” She had stumbled upon a page of assumptions Amazon had compiled about her life. ranging from the mundane—a note that she had “prepared for a Bluey-themed 2nd birthday celebration”—to the strangely invasive. The list included a declaration that she “probably owns a Shark vacuum” and. perhaps most jarringly. a claim that she “has flat buttocks.”.
Montgomery’s discovery on the social platform Threads highlighted a new and largely hidden corner of the retail giant’s data operations. The “About You” page. which launched in beta this May. uses a customer’s own shopping history to generate profiles categorized by Product Preferences. Interests & Hobbies. and Home & Family. Amazon maintains that the data is used to personalize product experiences. but the actual output is surfacing insights that feel less like shopping assistance and more like a mirror held up to the user’s private life.
Other users are reporting equally unsettling findings. One account claims the user “likes brunettes with muscles. ” while another user was informed that their “husband has skinny legs.” One individual even found the descriptor “cusses when scared” listed under their hobbies. On Reddit. shoppers have expressed alarm at how granular the information has become. with some noting that the profile page seemingly scrapes personal details directly from the text of past product reviews. For many, the realization that Amazon stores and surfaces these specific remarks is deeply unsettling.
This level of surveillance is supported by the company’s expansive Privacy Notice. The data collection stretches far beyond simple purchase orders or search history. It encompasses interactions with Alexa Voice services. contributions to discussion boards. and data shared when linking an Amazon account to a third-party business. The “About You” feature acts as a front-facing repository for these harvested behavioral signals.
While users cannot fully opt out of the system. they are permitted to edit or delete the assumptions Amazon has attached to their profiles. The company also offers a way to “make Amazon even more personal. ” allowing users to feed data from other AI agents into the system by copying and pasting responses from external chatbots into the “About You” portal.
For those curious to see how they are being profiled, the information is buried within the user account menu. By navigating to “Account. ” selecting “Shopping preferences” from the dropdown. and scrolling to the bottom to click “Manage your information” under “About You. ” shoppers can view their generated data. It is a digital profile that, for many, is proving to be as inaccurate as it is invasive.
Amazon privacy About You data tracking online shopping consumer privacy Megan Montgomery