How to Download Everything Amazon Knows About You (That’s a Lot)
Here’s a fun thought experiment; imagine the amount of personal data you think tech companies have on you. Now understand that it’s actually a lot more than that (hmm, maybe not that much fun). Even as there is increasing talk in consumer tech about privacy and security, the companies that make our favorite products are collecting more and more of our data. How many? Well, if you want to know information about you, say Amazon, there is a way to find out. And that’s a lot.
To be clear, data collection is far from an Amazon-specific problem; this is pretty much normal when it comes to technology companies. Even Apple, a company openly committed to user privacy, has faced criticism in the past for recording Siri interactions and sharing them with third-party contractors .
However, the problem with Amazon is the extent to which they collect and archive your data. Nearly everything you do with, with and around an Amazon product or service is logged and recorded. Of course, you won’t be surprised to know that when you visit the Amazon website, the company logs your browsing history and purchase data. But it goes far beyond that. Because Amazon owns Whole Foods, it also stores your shopping history there. When you view video content on your platforms, it also records all this information.
With other Amazon products, things get even scarier. If you read books on your Kindle, Amazon records your reading activity, including your page turning speed (I wonder if Bezos prefers slow or fast page turning); if you look into your Amazon data, you might find something similar to what a Reuters reporter found : On August 8, 2020, someone from this account read “The Mitchell Sisters: A Complete Romance” from 4:52 pm to 7:36 pm. filling out 428 pages. (Good sprint.)
If you have one of Amazon’s smart speakers, you record everything you’ve ever spoken on the device: When you ask Alexa a question or give him a command, Amazon saves audio files for the entire interaction. If you know how to access your data, you can listen to each of these audio files and relive moments you may or may not have known were recorded.
Another Reuters reporter found that Amazon had saved more than 90,000 recordings from three and a half years, including recordings of the reporter’s children asking Alexa questions, recordings of the same children apologizing to their parents, and, in some cases, extended conversations that beyond a reasonable Alexa request.
Unfortunately, while you can access this data, Amazon doesn’t let you delete most of it. You can change your privacy settings to prevent your devices from recording so much information. However, after logging in, the main strategy for deleting it is to delete the entire account it is associated with. But even if you can’t delete the data while keeping your account, you have the right to see what data Amazon has about you and it’s easy to request it.
How to Download All Your Amazon Data
To get started, follow this link or visit the Amazon help page. You will find the link under Security & Privacy > Learn more under Security & Privacy > Privacy > How do I request data? Once there, click on the “Request my details” link.
From the drop-down menu, select the data you want from Amazon. If you want everything, select “Request all your details”. Click Submit Request, then click the confirmation link in your email. That’s all. Amazon makes it easy to see what you have, probably because they know there’s nothing you can do about it.
[ Reuters ]