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Amazon can collect more than your completed orders. Its U.S. Privacy Notice describes information such as searches, viewed products, browsing interactions, account details, device identifiers and activity involving Alexa. Amazon says it uses personal information to recommend products and personalize services. You can review and adjust some of this activity, but the controls are spread across account, browsing, advertising and Alexa settings.
What does Amazon know about me?
Amazon’s U.S. Privacy Notice, last updated June 30, 2026, lists categories of information it may collect to provide and improve its services. These are examples, not a guarantee that Amazon collects every category for every customer or that each account contains every type of information.
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Information you provide or create through shopping
- Account and profile details, including contact information, addresses, payment information, age and location information.
- Searches and shopping activity, including products or content viewed, items added to or removed from a cart, orders, and content-use history.
- Reviews and communications with customer service.
- Alexa voice recordings, images and video, where relevant to the services you use.
The notice also describes technical and behavioral signals, such as the URL clickstream to, through and from Amazon websites; dates and times; page response times; time spent visiting; scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs; and device identifiers, cookies and similar technologies. In other words, the information Amazon describes can include how you move through its websites, not only what you buy.
These details help explain why an order list is not the same thing as everything Amazon says it may use. For example, a search or product view is distinct from a completed purchase, and page interactions or a device identifier are not themselves an order. Amazon’s notice names these as categories and examples; it does not provide a tally of how many data points it has about a particular person.
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Information from other sources
Amazon says it may receive information from other sources, including updated delivery or address information, account, purchase or page-view details from certain merchants, interactions with subsidiaries, advertising-related information, internet-connected devices linked with Alexa, and credit-history information for specified purposes. The notice does not say that every source supplies information about every customer.
Amazon’s stated uses include providing services, communicating with customers, advertising, fraud prevention and legal compliance, as well as recommendations and personalization. It says it may identify preferences and recommend features, products and services that might interest a customer. The notice describes categories and purposes, not a per-customer data count.
Does Amazon track what I search for and view?
Amazon’s notice says it collects information customers provide while searching or shopping and specifically lists searched or viewed products and content. It also describes website clickstream and interactions such as clicks, scrolling and mouse-overs. Those signals can inform Amazon’s own recommendations and personalization, alongside account and purchase information.
That does not mean there is one customer-facing file called a “shopping profile” that displays every signal. Here, “shopping profile” is a plain-language way to describe the account, shopping, browsing and interaction information Amazon says it may use. Customers can see some related information—such as purchase history, browsing history and recommendations—but Amazon does not describe those views as a complete export of every signal it may use.
So, if you are asking “Does Amazon track what I search for?”, the notice’s answer is that searches and searched or viewed products and content are among the information it says it may collect. That statement does not tell you which particular searches are associated with your account, how long every signal is kept, or how much weight a search receives in a recommendation. The reviewed notice does not supply those account-specific details.
How Amazon’s shopping profile is built—and what it means for Alexa
Amazon describes personalization as using personal information to identify preferences and suggest relevant features, products and services. A practical way to understand that is as a set of signals that may include account details, purchases, searches, product views and other service interactions. Amazon’s notice does not specify a universal formula or say how much weight any one signal receives.
Amazon says, “We use your personal information to recommend features, products, and services that might be of interest to you, identify your preferences, and personalize your experience with Amazon Services.” That is Amazon’s own description of its purpose, not a disclosure of a particular recommendation algorithm or a promise that every recommendation is based on the same inputs.
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- Your favorite music and content – Play music, audiobooks, and podcasts from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and others or via Bluetooth throughout your home.
- Alexa is happy to help – Ask Alexa for weather updates and to set hands-free timers, get answers to your questions and even hear jokes. Need a few extra minutes in the morning? Just tap your Echo Dot to snooze your alarm.
- Keep your home comfortable – Control compatible smart home devices with your voice and routines triggered by built-in motion or indoor temperature sensors. Create routines to automatically turn on lights when you walk into a room, or start a fan if the inside temperature goes above your comfort zone.
- Do more with device pairing – Fill your home with music using compatible Echo devices in different rooms, or create a home theatre system with Fire TV.
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Amazon’s current Alexa for Shopping help page describes context maintained for the logged-in profile across Amazon’s website and app and the listed Alexa surfaces: Echo devices, Alexa.com, the Alexa app, Fire tablets and Fire TV. It also says customers can review and manage Alexa interactions, including shopping conversations, through Review Alexa History. This is a description of that Alexa shopping experience; it is not proof that all shopping, browsing, device and advertising data is merged into one unified profile.
That distinction matters if you use Alexa to shop. The help page describes continuity for the logged-in profile in Alexa for Shopping, while the broader privacy notice describes many types of information and purposes across Amazon services. Neither statement means every activity on every device is presented in one place or controlled by one setting.
Does Amazon share my purchases with advertisers?
Amazon distinguishes the information it uses for its own personalization from what it says it shares with third-party advertising services. Its Privacy Notice says Amazon uses personal information to display interest-based ads, while saying it does not use information that personally identifies a customer to display those ads. For third-party advertising services, Amazon says it does not share a customer’s name or other information that directly identifies them; instead, it may use an advertising identifier, such as a cookie, device identifier or code derived through irreversible cryptography.
Amazon says it does not share customers’ “specific shopping actions like purchases, product views, or searches” with ad companies. It says it may share an advertising identifier and an estimate of the value of ads shown on Amazon’s behalf so companies can serve more effective Amazon ads. Amazon also says some ad companies may use information to show ads from other advertisers. These are Amazon’s descriptions of its practices in the notice, not an independent verification of how any particular ad company handles information.
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How to see or change Amazon’s shopping and advertising controls
Amazon provides several places to review information or change how it is used. The controls cover different areas; changing one setting should not be assumed to change every type of personalization or data handling.
Review account information and orders
Open Your Account to access information Amazon lists such as your name, address, payment options, profile information, Prime membership, household settings and purchase history.
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This is the practical starting point if your question is “What can I see about my account?” Amazon lists these categories as accessible through Your Account. Purchase history can tell you about orders, but it should not be treated as a full record of all searches, page interactions, device information or other categories named in the Privacy Notice.
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Review browsing history and recommendation influence
Use Your Browsing History to review items you recently viewed. Amazon also directs customers to Improve Your Recommendations. For an item, the “Use this item for recommendations” control lets you remove that item’s influence on recommendations.
This is an item-level recommendation control, not a statement that the item is erased from every Amazon record. If your goal is to inspect viewed products, start with browsing history; if your goal is to affect recommendations, use the recommendation control. The sources reviewed do not describe one switch that stops all uses of all browsing information across Amazon services.
Adjust personalized advertising
Go to Your Ads Privacy Choices to adjust personalized advertising preferences. This is an advertising control, not a substitute for browsing-history or Alexa controls.
Limit cookies in a browser
Your browser can block or limit cookies and identifiers. Amazon warns that rejecting cookies can interfere with using the cart, checking out or signing in. Amazon also says signing out and blocking cookies can avoid linking browsing history to your account while browsing its websites; that choice may come with the service limitations just described.
Cookie controls therefore involve a trade-off: they may limit certain linking, but can also make core website features unavailable or less functional. They are browser controls, not a replacement for reviewing account history, ad preferences or Alexa interaction history.
Request access or deletion where applicable
Amazon’s notice says that, to the extent required by applicable law, a person may have a right to request access to or deletion of personal information through Data Privacy Queries. Rights and procedures depend on the applicable law, so this is not a promise that the same request process or rights apply everywhere.
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- Your favorite music and content – Play music, audiobooks, and podcasts from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and others or via Bluetooth throughout your home.
- Alexa is happy to help – Ask Alexa for weather updates and to set hands-free timers, get answers to your questions and even hear jokes. Need a few extra minutes in the morning? Just tap your Echo Dot to snooze your alarm.
- Keep your home comfortable – Control compatible smart home devices with your voice and routines triggered by built-in motion or indoor temperature sensors. Create routines to automatically turn on lights when you walk into a room, or start a fan if the inside temperature goes above your comfort zone.
- Do more with device pairing – Fill your home with music using compatible Echo devices in different rooms, or create a home theatre system with Fire TV.
- Say goodbye to drop-offs and buffering - With eero Built-in, Echo Dot doubles as a mesh wifi extender, adding up to 1,000 sq. ft. of wifi coverage to your existing eero network.
Amazon recommends using a unique password for an Amazon account. That is a separate account-security step rather than a way to limit data collection: a unique password can help avoid reusing the same credential across accounts, but it does not change recommendation, advertising or history settings.
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In the Alexa app or Echo Show settings, customers can review and delete voice recordings, text transcripts and typed requests associated with their account, and manage certain Alexa data uses. Amazon’s Alexa FAQ says deleting recordings, transcripts and typed requests associated with a chat deletes those items from Amazon’s cloud.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThat deletion does not necessarily remove every related interaction record. Amazon says it may retain other records, including attachments, information supplied during interactions, actions Alexa took, products searched for and other information related to requests. Information collected by skill developers or stored outside Amazon’s cloud, such as on Echo or mobile devices, may not be deleted through Amazon’s control.
In plain terms, deleting the voice recording or transcript is not necessarily equivalent to deleting every piece of context connected to the interaction. Amazon’s FAQ explicitly distinguishes the selected items deleted from its cloud from other related records that may remain. If you use a third-party skill, Amazon’s deletion control also cannot be assumed to remove data held by that developer.
Alexa skills and advertising preferences
Amazon says skill developers do not receive voice recordings, although relevant information such as request content or transcripts may be exchanged with a skill. The default sharing of personal information with skill developers is off, according to Amazon, but customers can authorize additional sharing. For Alexa+, Amazon says relevant interaction information may be shared with developers to personalize skill experiences.
Amazon also describes separate controls for Alexa advertising preferences and identifiers used with third-party skills and content providers. Third-party developers and content providers remain responsible for honoring certain preferences. Turning off interest-based ads from Amazon on Alexa does not turn off ads across other Amazon services, including Amazon Music and Fire TV.
That makes the service distinction important: an Alexa advertising preference applies to the Alexa context described by Amazon, and it does not automatically carry over to every Amazon service or every third party. Skill developers and content providers have responsibilities of their own under the FAQ’s description.
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What you can—and cannot—infer from Amazon’s disclosures
- You can infer that Amazon describes collection beyond orders, including searches, product views, site interactions, account information and some Alexa activity.
- You can infer that Amazon says it uses personal information for recommendations and personalization, and that it describes advertising identifiers separately from directly identifying details and specific shopping actions.
- You cannot infer that every listed data category applies to you, that Amazon exposes one complete profile in account settings, or that a single setting controls all Amazon services and third parties.
- You cannot infer that deleting selected Alexa items removes all related records held by Amazon, a skill developer or a device.
Amazon’s Privacy Notice and Alexa help pages describe Amazon’s stated practices and available controls; they do not independently establish what is present in an individual account. The privacy notice can change, and the rights available to a customer depend on applicable law. This explainer is grounded in Amazon’s U.S. Privacy Notice and official Alexa disclosures reviewed October 13, 2026; check the live notice and controls again if you are acting on them later.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I see my Amazon browsing history?
Use Your Browsing History to review recently viewed items. Your Account provides information such as purchase history, but Amazon does not describe these views as a complete display of every signal it may use.
Can I stop Amazon using my browsing history for recommendations?
Amazon directs customers to Improve Your Recommendations. For an item, the “Use this item for recommendations” control lets you remove that item’s influence on recommendations. The cited sources do not describe this as erasing the item from all Amazon records or as a universal opt-out from every use of browsing information.
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Amazon’s Privacy Notice says it does not share customers’ specific shopping actions—such as purchases, product views or searches—with ad companies. It says it may share an advertising identifier and an estimate of ad value. This is Amazon’s description of its practice, not independent verification of how a particular ad company handles information.
If I delete Alexa recordings, does Amazon delete everything?
No. Amazon says deleting recordings, transcripts and typed requests associated with a chat deletes those items from its cloud, but other interaction records may remain, including attachments, information supplied, actions Alexa took, products searched for and other request-related information. Data held by skill developers or outside Amazon’s cloud may not be deleted through Amazon’s control.
Does turning off Alexa interest-based ads turn off ads everywhere on Amazon?
No. Amazon says turning off interest-based ads from Amazon on Alexa does not turn off ads across other Amazon services such as Amazon Music and Fire TV. Alexa advertising preferences and controls for other services are distinct.
Does Alexa for Shopping use the same profile across Amazon devices and services?
Amazon’s current Alexa for Shopping help page says it maintains context for the logged-in profile across its website and app and listed Alexa surfaces, including Echo devices, Alexa.com, the Alexa app, Fire tablets and Fire TV. That feature description does not establish that all Amazon shopping, browsing, device and advertising information is merged into one unified profile.
The Bottom Line
The practical takeaway: Amazon says its shopping-related information can include searches, views, browsing interactions and account details—not only purchases—and that it uses personal information for recommendations and personalization. Review Your Account, Your Browsing History, Improve Your Recommendations and Your Ads Privacy Choices for the controls relevant to your goal. Treat Alexa history as a separate area, and remember that deleting selected recordings or transcripts does not necessarily delete every related record.
Quick Recap
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