Amazon hopes to use artificial intelligence to match shoppers with the right products. But some users say that this tool is simply acting like a nosy, critical “aunt.”
Earlier this year, this e-commerce giant launched the “About You” feature – which is essentially a customer profile. Amazon describes it as an editable list of preferences that are inferred by the platform, with the aim of helping shoppers find products more efficiently within its vast marketplace. With just a few clicks, users can access the profile created for them by Amazon, view the conclusions drawn by the platform, and correct or remove any information they do not wish to influence the recommendation results.
This tool has recently received renewed attention on social media, especially on Threads, and has now become a hot topic. Amazon users say that the observations it provides are quite enlightening – even if they sometimes seem a bit harsh.
A shopper wrote, "I accidentally stumbled upon a page on Amazon that made various assumptions about me." She also attached a screenshot showing that Amazon's About You page seemed to state that she had "flat buttocks."
“I’m really speechless,” she said.
Another user said that Amazon judged her to have a “husband,” and that “her husband has very thin legs.” A third user mentioned that the page identified a rather specific habit: “She reads Kindle books while taking a shower.”
"That's true for me, but this is just too outrageous," wrote the shopper.
In May, Amazon launched About You, which is part of its broader AI shopping promotion initiative. The company stated that these recommendations are based on users' purchase history, search records, saved lists, product reviews, as well as conversations with Amazon's shopping assistant Alexa.
For many years, Amazon has been providing personalized shopping recommendations. What sets About You apart is that it allows users to see the personal profiles behind these recommendations in an unprecedentedly direct way – and in some cases, it also invites users to discover what Amazon believes their shopping history and conversations with Alexa reveal.
For some social media users, those sometimes rather sharp descriptions – and their order of importance – are particularly thought-provoking.
A shopper said that the robot first observed that she “kept a cat,” then that she “treated the cat like her own child,” and only later mentioned that she had a husband. Another person posted a screenshot on Threads stating that this tool listed her as “not easily trusting others” under the “interests and hobbies” category.
At the same time, on Reddit, a shopper stated that the system recognized that he “didn’t know what truffles were supposed to taste like in the first place.”
This feature is available on the Amazon shopping app, mobile web pages, and desktop versions. Within the app, users can follow the following path to see how Amazon perceives them:
- Account
- Shopping preferences
- About You
Shoppers can click on each observation result to view and edit the personal information that affects the recommended content.
Several journalists from Business Insider also checked their own profiles on Tuesday morning, with varying results: one account mistakenly identified the name of an editorial colleague, but correctly captured the trend of “slow but continuous upgrading” of the kitchen appliances. Another journalist mentioned that Amazon accurately understood her preference for organic agricultural products.
What is written on your Amazon “About You” page? Feel free to post your observations in the comment section of this article; they may be cited in future reports.
