Amazon customer profiling backlash over About You

The feature at the center of the debate is Amazon’s “About You” page, a little-known section that lets customers see what the company infers about them. According to the Spanish report, the profile is built from order history, searches, reviews, saved items and Alexa for Shopping conversations, then used to personalize recommendations and ads.

That has turned a quirky privacy complaint into a broader debate over how much online retailers know about consumers from everyday shopping behavior. After the post spread, other users began checking their own Amazon profiles and sharing both accurate and bizarre deductions, highlighting how automated profiling can quickly become a public relations problem.

Amazon says the information shown in “About You” is not necessarily factual and can be corrected or deleted by users, but it has not offered a specific explanation for the body-based description that triggered the uproar. The company is already facing wider scrutiny over data handling, and any perception that its systems are overly intrusive could add to pressure from regulators and consumers.

Investors have mostly treated the episode as a brand and trust issue rather than a direct earnings risk, but privacy controversies can still matter for Amazon’s ad business, Prime engagement and customer retention. The episode also lands as Amazon stock has been trading near the top of its recent range, with conventional technical indicators such as the 50-day and 200-day moving averages pointing to a strong uptrend even as volatility around data and regulation remains a recurring overhang.