With Amazon’s profits more than tripling in the first three months of 2021, it is clear that the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent restrictions has led to an increase in reliance on orders from the online retailer. It is now, therefore, more important than ever to understand the data published for an Amazon account, and how this can be amended to suit privacy preferences.

Here is how you view the information published on your profile through a computer:

• Log into your Amazon account.
• Click ‘All’ on the menu bar.
• Within ‘Help & Settings’ select ‘Your Account’.
• From the list below ‘Ordering and Shopping Preferences’ select ‘Profile’.
• You will now be on your own unique Amazon profile, where all the information published on your account will be displayed.

And here is how to view it on a mobile phone at www.amazon.co.uk :

• Log into your Amazon account.
• Click on the three lines in the top left corner.
• Within ‘Help & Settings’ select ‘Account’.
• Within personalization select “profile”.
• You will now be on your own unique Amazon profile, where all the information published on your account will be displayed.

And now to edit your information:

• Follow the above instructions to find your profile.
• Click the orange box marked ‘Edit your public profile’.
• On the page ‘Edit public profile’ you can change your public name, as well as optional details such as a bio, occupation, website, location, and links to any other social media accounts. All information on this page will be made public.
• On the page ‘Edit privacy settings’ you can select whether other information including reviews, who you follow, any badges obtained, and active wish lists are to be made ‘Public’ or ‘Private’. If selected to be public, these details will appear within the ‘Insights’ table on your profile. There is also an option to ‘Hide all activity on your public profile’ if you seek complete privacy.

Amazon state on their website that this data is used to make shopping on Amazon more ‘convenient’ and their products ‘better’, adding that the protection of their customers’ privacy and the security of such data is a top priority for the company.

So go take a peek at what Amazon says about you.