Amazon’s shopping profile can make unusually personal guesses

Amazon builds shopping profiles from customers’ purchases, and the assumptions it displays can be unexpectedly personal. One customer found that the company’s profile said she “has flat buttocks,” alongside less intimate guesses such as “Shops from women’s departments” and “Probably owns a Shark robot vacuum.”

The customer, who posts as @fangirlinmegan on Threads, said she had bought “butt scrunch leggings” and joked that the description was accurate. Her post drew more than a million views in less than a day as other users wondered what Amazon might infer about them.

TechCrunch reports that Amazon’s “About you” information is accessible through shopping preferences in the company’s account settings, both on desktop and in its mobile app. The page can include inferred interests and details customers add themselves.

TechCrunch writer Amanda Silberling said Amazon’s profile for her listed photography, collectible card games and an investment in the Apple ecosystem. She said colleagues saw interests such as vinyl records and ceramics, as well as preferences for natural materials and comfortable clothing.

The examples illustrate how purchase data can be used to draw personal inferences. Amazon’s displayed assumptions may be correct or surprising, as the Threads post showed.