Why is Amazon keeping track of the size of shoppers’ butts?
That’s the question that brought one Amazon customer to social media, where she shared the discovery that left her “literally speechless.”
According to Threads user Megan Montgomery, she “stumbled upon a page of assumptions that Amazon has made,” which included statements based on her shopping habits. That included the details of events she’d hosted (“Prepared for a Bluey-themed 2nd birthday celebration”), products she’d purchased (“Probably owns a Shark vaccuum”), and—most shockingly—the shape of her body (“Has flat buttocks”).
View on Threads
Montgomery had accidentally opened Amazon’s “About you” page, which is currently in beta after launching this May. The page uses data from customers’ activity to generate details about them in categories like Product Preferences, Interests & Hobbies, and Home & Family, which Amazon then uses to personalize users’ product experiences.
In Montgomery’s comments, other users shared the strangest assumptions Amazon had made about them. One user shared that it said their “husband has skinny legs.” Another’s account listed “cusses when scared” under their interests and hobbies. A third user’s account assumed that they like “brunettes with muscles,” much to their confusion.
Though many social media users are just discovering the feature, others have been discussing it since launch. On Reddit, one user complained that their “About you” page had seemingly pulled data from reviews they’d left. “I was absolutely stunned to see it saves these details I had put in my review and more,” they wrote. “Honestly, it seriously creeps me out.”
Amazon’s privacy policy
Though some shoppers seemed shocked to learn Amazon was pulling information from their reviews, that’s only the tip of the iceberg of Amazon’s personal data collection.
In its Privacy Notice, Amazon lists every activity that provides user data to the company. That includes the obvious, like searching for items and placing orders, as well as actions users may not realize are being tracked, like interacting with Alexa Voice services, participating in discussion boards, or linking your Amazon account to a third-party business.
While shoppers can’t directly opt out of Amazon’s “About you” feature, they are able to customize the data, adding details they want Amazon to know about them and deleting assumptions they deem inaccurate or too personal.
How to view your ‘About you’ page
Want to see what Amazon thinks of you and your shopping habits? Here’s how to view your own “About you” page.
First, navigate to your “Account” page. Next, under the “Account settings” dropdown menu, select “Shopping preferences.” Finally, scroll to the bottom of that page and click “Manage your information” under the heading “About You.” The page is also accessible when switching between profiles.
On the “About you” page, customers also have an option to “make Amazon even more personal to you” by importing personal data they’ve shared with other AI agents. To do so, Amazon provides users with a prompt to feed to their chatbot to generate a shopping profile, then asks them to copy and post that bot’s response back into Amazon.
