Amazon uses its tracking data to guess whether shoppers have a flat butt and no friends
is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.
Most people know that Amazon collects data about your shopping history to serve up personalized product recommendations. But what some of us didn’t realize is that you can check exactly what Amazon knows — or thinks it knows — about you in your settings menu. One user’s findings went viral on Threads after she discovered that Amazon assumed she “has flat buttocks” based on her purchases, resulting in a flood of other posts with users sharing the oddly specific information Amazon uses to describe them.
In another post, a user found that Amazon says they don’t “trust people easily,” while someone else discovered that Amazon thinks she “finds it hilarious when toys get stuck to ceiling tiles in the classroom.” Other descriptions spotted by users include “cusses when scared,” “cannot keep real plants alive,” “has no friends,” and “treats cats as biological children.”
While some of these descriptions seem like a roast from Amazon, most of them are pretty generic. For example, mine says I “maintain active aquarium systems,” “regularly consume coffee,” and “play video games regularly,” all of which are accurate.
If you want to see what Amazon may have learned about you, you can find out by selecting your account icon in the top-right corner of your screen, scrolling down to the “Your Account” section, and hitting “Your Shopping preferences.” From there, scroll down the page and select “About You.” You’ll then see a list of details Amazon uses to personalize your account, which you can edit or delete.
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