Amazon and anonymity – incompatible concepts

Last week I published my essay, “you buy the product, or are the product“. Today I am supplementing the concept with a quote and link to a Breitbart article on protecting yourself when shopping via Amazon.

I do not want to discourage anyone from doing exactly as the Breitbart article recommends, but if you think Amazon or any of the pyramid companies will allow you privacy I have a bridge to sell along with some Montana coastal property.

Living in the hinterlands, we use Amazon a lot, but not with any delusions of anonymity.

The headline link below will take you to the Breitbart article. I quote the first little bit of it underneath.

Protect Your Privacy on Amazon by Changing These Settings

Amazon is the leading online e-commerce marketplace, but many of its users aren’t aware that many of their purchases on the platform aren’t as anonymous as they think.

Fox News published an article recently focusing on five things that a user can do with their Amazon account that they may not be aware of, but the most important aspects of this article are the ones relating to user privacy. Many users are unaware that they have a public Amazon profile which is created automatically and contains comments, ratings, wish lists, personal information and a host of other data. Here’s how a user can control how their public Amazon profile is seen:

1. Put your cursor on the “Account & Lists,” button and then click on “Your Account.”

2. Scroll down to the “Ordering and shopping preferences” section. Click the “Profile” link, which is right above the social media preferences link.

3. Click on the link in the orange box to the right that says, “Edit your profile.” Click the Edit privacy settings tab.

4. You can select or deselect items like Reviews, Questions, Who You Follow, Public Wish Lists, Baby Registry, and others. To simplify this, there’s also a handy option to “Hide all activity on your profile,” which turns everything off at once.

It’s sometimes hard to tell what other people can see. If you want a quick look at what information you’re sharing publicly, click “View your profile as a visitor.” You can tell at a glance if you’re sharing anything you don’t want to out in the public arena.

If your profile is showing your real name, or other biographical information you don’t want, go back to the profile settings page and click the Edit profile tab. It’s located right next to the Edit Privacy settings tab.

You can edit or delete any information like your Bio, Occupation, Location, and more. You can even change the “public name” on your profile and post reviews anonymously.