Amazon Has Been Making Creepy (and Hilarious) Assumptions About Shoppers, and People Are Just Finding Out
Amazon shoppers woke up to a funny surprise on the first morning of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days. No, it wasn’t the big sales or exclusive deals that caught everyone’s attention on the morning of Oct. 6, but instead it was a viral post from Threads user @fangirlinmegan.
The Amazon shopper posted a screenshot from her account, showing her followers what she had uncovered. “I stumbled upon a page of assumptions that Amazon has made about me based on my purchases, and I’m literally speechless,” she captioned the photo, which had “Product Preferences: Has flat buttocks” circled in red.
“I mean it ain’t wrong, but damn did you have to call me out like that,” she continued. Her post quickly went viral, receiving more than 24,300 likes and more than 4,600 comments in less than 24 hours after she shared it.
Now, people everywhere are checking their own accounts to see what their “Shopping Preferences” are listed as, sharing the funnier finds online. And while some people can’t stop laughing over the things Amazon knows about them, some find that knowledge a little invasive.
Woman’s Viral Post Prompts People to Check Their Amazon Accounts
View on Threads
As soon as @fangirlinmegan’s post went viral, she shared screenshots of exactly where people needed to go to check their own results. According to her, you need to go into your profile, click “Account,” then “Shopping Preferences,” and then “About You.”
Once you get to that last section, you can scroll down and see what type of information Amazon has been collecting about your shopping habits. It’s worth noting that the steps may be different depending on what type of device you’re on.
One person’s “Home & Family” section said, “The customer’s dog has a hat.”
Another person’s eating habits were called into question when their “Product Preferences” section said, “Explored premium ice cream flavors in a concentrated period.” All they posted in response was, “This is embarrassing.”
Some Were Uncomfortable With the Information Collected
Another person’s post said, “Uses phone in the shower to read Kindle books” under their “Interests & Hobbies.”
“It’s totally not suspicious at all that they know this about you either,” a person responded.
“Okay, but how do they know you’re showering,” a second person added.
When the person who shared the showering find said that they didn’t know where Amazon was getting that information from, another person posted an unsettling question: “Did you search shower proof case? Or is it legit watching you?”
This Feature Isn’t a New One
While the viral post about this feature has everyone talking about it, Redditor beebeebeehappy posted about discovering it five months ago. “Amazon has a new feature that puts everything they know about you … mine has 48 entries,” they wrote. “I can understand why they know I have a cat, because of cat food purchases… but how do they know my cat has long dark hair?”
After going back and forth with other Redditors about it, the OP posted an update with information they said they found on Amazon that included, “Data Usage for Services: According to Amazon’s Terms of Use, the company may use, access, and retain your files to provide services, enforce agreements, and ‘improve our services.'”
While the OP was shaken up by the discovery, it seems like many people on Threads are just having fun by seeing how much Amazon actually knows about them based on their shopping habits.
