How to Lock Down Your Amazon Account for Privacy

Unwittingly or not, Amazon is the digital town gossip — the nosy neighbor who puts your business in the streets! Comments reveal loads about your likes and dislikes, and wish lists document your wants. It may seem inconsequential at first, but personal knowledge can be leveraged by social engineering scammers. Plus, there’s biographical information embedded in every profile. So if you want to keep safe on Amazon, it’s important to follow a few simple tips.

#4 Lock Down Amazon Tip: Limit Your Amazon Profile’s Visibility

To keep as private as possible on Amazon.com, lock down your profile settings. Here’s how:

Sign in to your amazon account
Click on accounts and lists
Click on your account
In the “ordering and shopping preferences” section, click on “profile”
Select “edit your profile”
Click on privacy settings and make everything you can private

To make things easy, pick the “hide all profile activity” option. It turns everything off. To check what you’re sharing publicly, simply click on the “view your profile as a visitor” option.

#3 Lock Down Amazon Tip: Hide Your Shopping and Wish Lists

Does the world really need to know your dog ran out of pet mouthwash and your pantry is running low on pepper? It may sound crazy, but scam artists can use those seemingly innocuous facts to weasel money out of you. As such, it’s best to lock down your shopping and wish lists from public view. Here’s how:

Click on the account and lists drop-down box
Select wish list
Click on the dots aside “send list to others” and select the “manage list” option; this is where you change details like your lists’ name, the recipients’ name, birthday, email, or privacy details.

To change your lists’ from public to private, click on the drop-down box and select private.

#2 Lock Down Amazon Tip: Cloak Your Browsing Activity

Amazon tracks browsing activity by default. It helps them develop targeted ads. But if you want to opt out, there’s a way.

Login to your Amazon account
Click on browsing history
Navigate to “manage history”
Toggle to “turn browning history on/off” and choose “off”

#1 Lock Down Amazon Tip: Delete Alexa Often

Alexa can tell you things, and she can also listen in and make note of what you say. To silence the electronic gossip, it’s wise to delete your voice logs every couple of weeks.