Amazon: zoom on its data protection policies

 

When purchasing from Amazon, you are required to share some basic information like your name, location and age. Nonetheless, what you might not be aware of is that when you speak to Alexa, these voice recordings, and other details linked to smart speakers, are also stored.

The e-commerce giant also does a background check on your credit history from financial firms. This is to help “prevent and detect fraud and to offer certain credit or financial services to some customers”. Nonetheless, not everything that you share is instantly saved by the retailer. The details that are automatically stored are: what you buy and search for on the e-commerce website, contents that you have downloaded, streamed and viewed, your interactions with Alexa, information that you upload on your profile, reviews, wish lists and watch lists.

This might surprise you, but in fact, Amazon shares these details with different sources such as advertisers, publishers, social media networks, search engines and advertising companies. The firm is constantly buying and selling new assets to expand into several areas of retail and technology. Thus, data is shared within the organisation to enhance its operations.

However, Amazon does not sell your personal details with external companies. As advanced by their privacy policy, “We do not associate your interactions on unaffiliated sites with information which on its own identifies you, such as name or email address”.

Amazon shares details within its sub-divisions © Royalty-free image


Comments