Amazon and Data Collection
Hello and welcome back to our newsletter. As Prime Day and Prime Week at Amazon are with us, we believe it is time to take a look at the data collected by Amazon.
There are over 15 million people subscribed to Amazon Prime in UK, and much more than that will shop through Amazon on Prime Day. But have you ever wondered what information does Amazon collect about you? Well, let’s have a look at it.
We made a small research on their privacy notice and we found that Amazon collects the following information about you. We also highlighted in RED the most sensitive type of data they gather.
– search or shop for products or services in their stores;
– add or remove an item from your cart, or place an order through or use Amazon Services;
– download, stream, view, or use content on a device or through a service or application on a device;
– provide information in your account (and you might have more than one if you have used more than one e-mail address or mobile number when shopping with them) or your profile ;
– talk to or otherwise interact with our Alexa Voice service;
– upload your contacts;
– configure your settings on, provide data access permissions for, or interact with an Amazon device or service;
– provide information in your seller account , Kindle direct publishing account, developer account , or any other account they make available that allows you to develop or offer software, goods, or services to Amazon customers;
– offer your products or services on or through Amazon Services;
– communicate with them by phone, e-mail, or otherwise;
– complete a questionnaire, a support ticket, or a contest entry form;
– upload or stream images, videos or other files to Prime Photos, Amazon Drive, or other Amazon Services;
– use their services such as Prime Video;
– compile Playlists, Watchlists, wish lists or other gift registries;
– participate in Discussion Boards or other community features;
– provide and rate reviews ;
– specify a Special Occasion Reminder; or
– employ product availability reminder, such as Available to Order Notifications
Based on these, Amazon also collects the following data:
– identifying information such as your name, address, and phone numbers;
– payment information;
– your age;
– your location information;
– your IP address;
– people, addresses and phone numbers listed in your Addresses;
– e-mail addresses of your friends and other people;
– content of reviews and e-mails to them;
– personal description and photograph from your profile;
– voice recordings when you speak to Alexa;
– images and videos collected or stored in connection with Amazon Services;
– information and documents regarding identity, including Social Security (National Insurance Number) and driver’s license numbers;
– corporate and financial information;
– credit history information;
– device log files and configurations, including Wi-Fi credentials, if you choose to automatically synchronize them with your other Amazon devices
As you can see, Amazon holds much more information about you than you might’ve thought, but as promised, we work hard to make data privacy and data protection easy for you. We are here to inform you and keep you updated about everything that happens with your data in the online environment.
Since you are here, and most certainly will or have shopped via Amazon, we have a little surprise for you. We made available for you the e-mail address to Amazon’s Data Protection Officer, so you can submit an official Subject Access Request, and obtain a copy of all the data Amazon holds about you. This way, you can take back control over your data, and decide what to do with it. You can restrict the way the process it, you can ask them to delete it, and much more. It is your data, so you decide what you want to do with it.
The e-mail address of Amazon’s DPO is: eu-privacy@amazon.co.uk
#keepitprivate #dataprivacy #dataprotection
I am going to install Eero mesh system and I want to block data and personal information collection. I was told I cannot do this. Any suggestions?
Hi James. I’m Claudiu. I’m not very familiar with Eero systems, but after a quick search, I couldn’t see a built-in option for you to block any data collection (I’m guessing from websites/apps you browse). In terms of advertisers and the data they collect, they focus on cookies. By collecting massive amounts of cookies from a large number of websites, they can create your profile, and at some point, this data can be used to find your personal information. In this case, I would recommend you to use a browser that automatically stops cookie trackers (like Brave or even Firefox) or use a cookie blocker for Chrome.
In terms of personal information collection, it’s not really the type of information collected, but more about what that company does with this data. In this case, I would suggest you to stop companies from using your personal data for certain purposes (stop them from sharing/selling it, using it for advertising purposes).
Hope this helps.