How To Prevent Amazon From Collecting Your Data: Simple Steps
While Amazon has built a successful business around its online marketplace, have you ever thought about how this company became so successful? Part of the answer is collecting user data. We were quite surprised to find that many elements of our Amazon profile data are visible to the public.
Your Amazon profile consists of your bio, social links, shopping lists, etc. and that is why you should make it private. It is always recommended to protect and anonymize as much information as possible. In this article, we will tell you how to make your Amazon profile private and how to remove your Alexa voice commands from Amazon servers.
Make your Amazon user profile private
Follow the steps below to learn how you can control what others see on your Amazon profile.
- Visit Amazon.in and go to your Bill.
- In Order & Shipping Preferences, tap Profile.
- Once your profile page loads, click Edit your public profile.
- Your personal information, such as your biography, occupation, social links, remains public on Amazon. It is best to remove all personal information from this page for privacy reasons.
- Click Edit privacy settings > click Hide all activity on your public profile > hit Save.
- Now click Back to a public profile. You can also click See what others see to see how your public profile looks when someone visits it.
Make your Amazon wish list private
There are two lists on Amazon: shopping list and wish list. You want to make sure these lists are private because if they are public, anyone can look up your name and take a look at the things you want to buy. Follow these steps.
- Repeat the steps above and go to your Amazon profile.
- Open your Shopping list or you Wish list.
- Click Plus and hit Manage list.
- In the pop-up that appears, next to Privacy, make sure it is set to Private.
- Hit Save Changes And you are ready.
Hide your Amazon browsing history
Your browsing history includes all the things you have recently searched for on Amazon. You should turn this off because this is the information that helps Amazon target your ads. Follow these steps.
- Visit Amazon.in> hover over Accounts and lists > click Your recommendations.
- In the top bar, press Your browsing history.
- Then click Manage history > click Remove all items from view and you also disable Activate browsing history.
- One more thing to disable is personalized ads. To do that, go to your Bill. Under Email Alerts, Messages, and Announcements, click Advertising preferences.
- On the next page choose Do not personalize Amazon ads for this internet browser.
Delete your Alexa voice recordings
From Amazon Alexa, The voice assistant is based on listening to your voice and recording each of your voice commands. Whether you’re using Alexa on an Echo device or a smartphone, if privacy is a concern, make sure to follow these steps to make sure Alexa isn’t recording your user data.
- On your smartphone, open the Amazon Alexa app, available on both Google Play and App store.
- Check in to your Amazon account that is synced with your Echo device, if you have one.
- Once logged in, press Plus And go to Settings.
- Please select Alexa Privacy and touch Manage your Alexa data.
- On the next page, scroll down and uncheck Using voice recordings and Use messages to improve transcripts in Help improve Alexa.
- To delete existing voice recordings, go back and touch Check voice history.
- Set the date range to The whole story and touch Delete all recordings from all history.
- You can Enable voice removal Plus, that allows you to delete each and every one of your recordings with a simple voice command.
These were some of the important steps you need to take to prevent Amazon from collecting your user data.