Amazon has rolled out a tool called About You that offers users a window into what the platform thinks it knows about them—and lets them tweak bits of that profile. But while it offers more control, it underscores just how deeply Amazon mines user behavior to drive recommendations and sales.
What is the About You page?
Introduced in May 2026, About You lets Amazon customers review and adjust the data the company uses to suggest products. This data comes from several sources: your purchase history, activity with Alexa (for shopping), product reviews, shopping lists, and searches across the site. Its goal is twofold—give users the chance to correct mistakes, and reduce repetitive or unwanted product suggestions. But the subtext is clear: much of the recommendation engine depends on habits you’ve already shown.
What data has Amazon collected?
On the About You page (accessible via your account menu or profile section in the Amazon Shopping app), Amazon shows the retail categories, brands, and lifestyle signals it has inferred about you. For example, it might show whether you own pets, appear to own Apple devices, or how often you visit certain departments—say, groceries, electronics, or accessories. It pulled in insights like if a user frequents the cheese section or shops for premium butter. In one test profile, Amazon believed the user “probably” lived in a specific city, knew about their PC gaming setup, and even expected them to own a particular drone model bought back in 2024.
Limits to the control—and transparency
While About You allows users to add or remove the entries Amazon has associated with them, it doesn’t offer a way to stop the accumulation of that data entirely. Even deleting specific items doesn’t stop future inference, and there’s no opt-out of recommendation-driven profiling. For users who shop without logging in, Amazon still tracks browsing and creates a “John Doe” profile based on likely preferences.
Even with these gaps, About You exposes how detailed and wide-ranging Amazon’s user knowledge is. It’s surprising what gets inferred—some obvious, like brands you buy; others more speculative or vague. Even after long-term use, Amazon may miss basic details, or make odd assumptions about your habits, geography, or device ownership.
Amazon’s profile listings don’t appear to update in real-time for every user. Some entries may carry dates from months back, and where you live, some about habits, may remain stale. That said, its system already has enough data in many cases to build a fairly intricate picture of your preferences.
Why this matters: Amazon frames About You as a transparency and personalization tool—but it also showcases the seamless feedback loop between user behavior and sales pressure. The more Amazon knows, the more it nudges you.
My take: About You is a reminder that the convenience and personalization we get from services like Amazon comes with hidden costs: behavioral nudging powered by data you may barely realize you’re giving up. Going forward, keep an eye on whether Amazon adds features for pausing or exporting these profiles, or gives finer control over how inferred traits are used—and whether regulators push for more restrictions on how much retailers can profile you without your explicit consent.
