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How to see everything Amazon knows about you
Tech giants don’t become enormous by guessing what users want or need. Behind the scenes is a complex operation of algorithms, customer information and personal data. That information must be gathered from somewhere.
Read on for steps to see everything Amazon knows about you.
Amazon’s treasure trove of information
Like social media networks, online retailers require information to work correctly. For example, they must know your location for home deliveries, your mobile number for notifications and things you are interested in to provide targeted ads.
According to Amazon’s privacy policy, the data it collects on you comes from three sources: what you willingly provide, information gathered automatically, and from other sources, such as third-party providers.
In addition to your name, address and telephone number, the information you provide includes anything you add or remove from your cart, your interactions with Alexa and any contacts you upload to your profile.
Automatic information collection includes things like your computer or mobile phone’s IP address, the location of your device and your purchase and content history. It also includes downloads, streams and playback details.
Information gathered from other sources includes updated delivery and address information, search results and links, credit history information from credit bureaus, and information about internet-connected devices and services linked with Alexa.
Steps to see everything Amazon knows about you
You control the information you provide to Amazon, but as with many services, it might not give you the best experience if you withhold critical details. However, some information seems irrelevant and its collection doesn’t always make sense.
Is there anything that you can do about it? Well, to some degree, yes. Amazon is relatively transparent with what information it gathers on you to create a user profile, and you can easily see the data.
According to its privacy policy, you can access your information, including your name, address, payment options, profile information, Prime membership, household settings, and purchase history, in the Your Account section of the website. But you can find out even more data with the following steps.
Here’s how to access the data:
- Log in to your Amazon account.
- At the top, hover your mouse over your name and click on Account under the Your Account heading.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Request Your Information under the Data and Privacy tab.
You can specify what data you want to see from the drop-down menu. Options include your orders, addresses, payment options, search history and more. To see everything Amazon knows about you, select Request All Your Data.
Once you have selected the correct data set, click on Submit Request. Next, Amazon will send a confirmation link to your email address on file, which you will need to click to verify your request.
You should see this message once you confirm the request: “We will provide your information to you as soon as we can. Usually, this should not take more than a month. In exceptional cases, for example, if a request is more complex or if we are processing a high volume of requests, it might take longer, but if so we will notify you that there will be a delay.”
That’s it. Keep an eye on your inbox for another email from Amazon with all your data.
We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Tags: algorithms, Amazon, computer, devices, downloads, guide, internet, personal data, privacy, privacy policy, search results, settings, steps, tech giants, user profile
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