What Data Does Amazon Actually Collect?

Amazon is one of the most data-rich companies in the world. It knows what you buy, what you considered buying but didn't, what you watch, what you ask Alexa, where you walk in its physical stores, and in some cases what your credit history looks like. That data is used to run the largest e-commerce advertising business in the United States.

We've done a full analysis of Amazon's privacy policy (grade: D, 40/100). Here's what it actually says.

Purchase and browsing history

Every item you purchase, search for, or click on Amazon's marketplace is logged and linked to your account. Amazon uses this to generate product recommendations, personalise your homepage, and target you with advertising — both on Amazon's platform and on third-party sites through Amazon's advertising network.

Amazon doesn't just track your purchases. It tracks which products you viewed, how long you spent on a product page, what you added to a wish list or cart and then removed, and what you searched for. This creates a detailed record of your consumer psychology, not just your consumer behaviour.

There are no specific retention periods disclosed for any of this data. The policy says Amazon retains information to "provide and improve services" without defining how long any category is kept. Given that Amazon's recommendations improve with more data, the commercial incentive is indefinite retention.

Alexa voice recordings

Every interaction with Alexa — every voice command, question, and request — is collected and stored by Amazon. The policy is explicit: "voice recordings when you speak to Alexa" are among the data Amazon collects.

Alexa devices are in a passive listening state continuously, waiting for the wake word. Amazon's position is that only post-wake-word audio is captured and transmitted. The recordings are stored unless you actively delete them — Amazon does not auto-delete by default. You can manage this in the Alexa app (More → Settings → Alexa Privacy → Manage Your Alexa Data) and set automatic deletion to 3 or 18 months.

Amazon has acknowledged that a small number of recordings are reviewed by employees for accuracy improvement. You can opt out of this review, but the option is buried in the same privacy settings.

Physical store surveillance

If you shop at an Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, or Whole Foods store, you are subject to surveillance that most shoppers don't realise is happening. Amazon deploys cameras, computer vision systems, and sensors throughout these stores to track your movement and which products you interact with.

The policy states: "Our physical stores may use cameras, computer vision, sensors, and other technology to gather information about your activity in the store, such as the products and services you interact with." This is passive biometric-adjacent surveillance that occurs simply by entering the store — there is no opt-in, and the only opt-out is not shopping there.

Credit history and identity data

Amazon obtains credit history from credit bureaus — not just for credit applications (Amazon Store Card, Amazon Pay Later), but as part of its standard data collection. It also collects social security numbers and driver's licence numbers for identity verification.

Collecting SSNs and credit data is common among financial services providers. Amazon is unique in combining this financial identity data with a comprehensive consumer behaviour profile that includes what you buy, what you say to your devices, and how you move through physical spaces.

What Amazon does with it all

Amazon is not primarily in the business of selling your data. The policy includes an explicit commitment: "we are not in the business of selling our customers' personal information to others." This is meaningful and true — Amazon's advantage comes from using the data itself, not from selling it.

What Amazon does instead is build one of the largest advertising businesses in the world from that data. Amazon Advertising allows brands to target users based on purchase history, browsing behaviour, device usage, and demographic signals — all derived from Amazon's first-party data. This advertising revenue exceeded $50 billion in recent years and is growing faster than the retail business.

When you buy from a third-party seller on the marketplace, your personal information is shared with that seller. Amazon has tens of millions of third-party sellers with varying privacy practices. Once your data is with a seller, Amazon's policy does not govern what they do with it.

What you can actually control

Amazon provides more controls than most people realise — but several of them have meaningful limitations.

You can turn off personalised advertising based on Amazon's data about you, but this doesn't stop Amazon from collecting the data, and it doesn't affect ads on third-party sites run by Amazon's advertising network.

You can delete Alexa voice history in the app, and you can set automatic deletion for future recordings. You cannot delete your purchase history — orders are kept in your account history permanently (archiving just hides them from the default view).

You can request a copy of your data through Amazon's Privacy Hub, and you can submit deletion requests for certain categories of personal information. The practical effect of deletion requests on Amazon's analytical systems is unclear — the policy does not specify how long data persists in derived form after the raw records are deleted.

One important caveat: the policy warns that blocking cookies breaks core shopping features. You cannot add items to your cart, proceed to checkout, or sign in without cookies. The platform is functionally unusable without accepting some data collection.

The honest summary

Amazon earns a D grade (40/100) primarily because of the breadth of collection, the absence of retention timelines, and the advertising business that monetises that data. It is not because Amazon is unusually deceptive about what it collects — the policy is actually fairly candid. The problem is the scope of what is collected and the commercial structure that depends on it.

Amazon grades D. For context: Google grades F. Meta grades F. The D grade reflects the fact that Amazon doesn't profile people who haven't chosen to use its services (unlike Meta's cross-site tracking), commits to not selling data, and has real security certifications. But if you use Amazon's products heavily — Alexa, Prime Video, physical stores, the marketplace — Amazon holds one of the most comprehensive profiles of your consumer life of any company in the world.

See the full Amazon privacy analysis for the complete breakdown of all four scoring pillars, or compare Amazon and Google side by side.