What to Use Instead of Amazon Assistant, an Invasive Wishlist Replacement

If you are using the Amazon Wish List bookmarklet to keep track of all the products you want to buy or receive as a gift , you may have noticed a recent change. The company is phasing out its old one-click tool in favor of the more advanced (and more aggressive) Amazon Assistant.

The problem boils down to a technical difference in how Amazon Assistant and the bookmarklet work. The old version was just a small chunk of JavaScript that would put together whatever product you looked at and submit it to your wishlist. By comparison, the new Assistant is a more sophisticated browser plugin that can track everything you do online .

Right. Once you’ve installed Amazon Assistant, the company will be able to see everything you do in that browser. The new terms of service page even confirms this by flagging it as “Automatic Information”. Amazon notes that the data collected will not be associated with your account, but will still be tied to your IP address. This is not exactly a pleasant distinction .

Unfortunately, there is no third-party button that can send product information back to your Amazon wishlist (the company obviously won’t allow this), but there are many competing wishlist services out there.

One of the best options is Shoptagr , which allows you to add products from many different online stores (including Amazon) to your central wishlist. You can set up notifications when an item is back in stock or goes on sale, and share your listing with others to receive gifts. Shoptagr also offers a button, like Amazon’s old bookmarklet, for quickly adding new products.

Most importantly, it only tracks you when you use the button. So you don’t have to worry about Shoptagr monitoring everything you do online.

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