Amazon's 'About You' Page Shows Its Guesses About You
Amazon runs an 'About You' page inside customer accounts that lists the details it uses to personalize product recommendations, and shoppers can edit or delete individual entries. The Verge
To see it, click the account icon in the top-right, open Your Account, then Your Shopping preferences, then About You. The page sits several clicks below account settings, which is why many shoppers had not seen it until posts about it circulated this week.
The list goes beyond order history or saved sizes. It includes Amazon's assumptions about favorite brands, hobbies and body shape. Fast Company
That range became clear when posts on Threads about the page went viral. One shopper found Amazon had guessed she 'has flat buttocks' from her purchases. Others posted similarly specific lines.
Another entry described someone as not trusting people easily, phrased as doesn't 'trust people easily.' A different user was described as someone who 'finds it hilarious when toys get stuck to ceiling tiles in the classroom.'
Other shared entries said someone 'cusses when scared,' 'cannot keep real plants alive,' 'has no friends,' and 'treats cats as biological children.' The wording is casual and conversational. It reads like sentences produced by software making guesses from data, a process called inference, rather than a neat table of categories.
Those entries can be changed. Users can edit or delete details on the page, which controls this layer of the profile without deleting order history.
This profile control is separate from ad controls. Amazon's Advertising Preferences page offers two choices: 'Show me interest-based ads provided by Amazon' or 'Do not show me interest-based ads provided by Amazon.' Amazon says interest-based ads are sometimes called personalized or targeted ads, and it shows them to surface features, products and services that might interest the user. Amazon
The opt-out is limited in scope. Amazon says it will not use information from use of its store and services to deliver ads off its own properties. It will not deliver ads on Amazon that use information supplied by the advertiser. It will not show ads on Amazon and affiliates' sites, apps and services based on activity on Amazon and affiliates' sites, apps and services.
Turning off interest-based ads does not turn off on-site personalization. Users may still see personalized product recommendations unless they separately change Your Recommendations or Browsing History. Amazon also says opting out does not affect other services that use cookies, small files a browser stores to remember settings, and that information may still be collected for other purposes.
The setting itself relies on cookies. Amazon uses cookies to remember a choice not to receive interest-based ads, so the choice must be set again if cookies are deleted or a different browser is used. Preferences for a device can be updated without signing in, while updating preferences for an account requires signing in. Amazon also offers 'Delete ad data' to remove personal information linked to a device from its ad systems, and points users to Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out pages for third-party advertisers and ad networks. It says it participates in the Digital Advertising Alliance and the Network Advertising Initiative.
Two related projects add background. Amazon describes its AI feature Interests as working on customers' behalf to constantly watch for new products in its store that match their interests. Separately, Amazon Ads announced Dynamic TV Creative, an AI-powered process that can personalize interactive video ads on premium streamers.
The broader context here is the move from recording what people bought to guessing who they are. A purchase record is straightforward. A sentence about temperament, humor, social life or body shape is a guess, and guesses fail in particular ways. They can be wrong, uncomfortable when right, and odd when the system stretches a few purchases too far. In my view, the useful detail is that Amazon splits the controls four ways: profile editing, recommendation exclusion, ad opt-out and device-level ad data deletion, each with different scope and staying power. Most shoppers will expect one switch to do it all, so that split needs to be clear. The long arc still points to more specific personalization, and editable guess lists are a practical way to keep the helpful part while stopping bad guesses from sticking.
