It’s no secret that Amazon draws conclusions from what customers buy: if you repeatedly buy cat litter, the company will likely infer you have cats; if you buy many acne treatments, it may guess you’re prone to breakouts. Still, seeing those inferences displayed in a neat list can be surprising — especially when some entries feel uncomfortably personal.
A Threads user discovered the account section on Amazon that shows what the retailer thinks about you. Alongside relatively benign items such as “Shops from women’s departments” and “Probably owns a Shark robot vacuum,” she found an entry stating Amazon believes she “has flat buttocks.”
The Amazon customer, @fangirlinmegan, wrote on Threads: “I stumbled upon a page of assumptions that Amazon has made about me based on my purchases and I’m literally speechless. I mean it ain’t wrong but damn did you have to call me out like that?” The post received more than one million views in under a day, prompting many people to check their own profiles.
How to find this page
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On desktop: hover over the “Hello, [your name]” area in the upper-right corner of the Amazon website, then click “Account” under the “Your Account” section. Under “Ordering and shopping preferences,” select “Your Shopping preferences.” From there you can add personal details like shoe size, interests, and dietary preferences. At the bottom of that page is a blue link labeled “Manage your information”—click that to see the assumptions Amazon has made about you.
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In the mobile app: tap the hamburger icon in the bottom menu, then go to Account > Shopping preferences > About you.
In the author’s own profile, Amazon inferred that they “practice photography,” “play collectible card games,” and are “invested in the Apple ecosystem,” observations the author found accurate. Colleagues reported other inferences such as interest in vinyl records and ceramics, a preference for “natural materials” in home decor, and clothing that “prioritizes comfort.”
The Threads poster suggested the “has flat buttocks” inference may have come from buying “butt scrunch leggings,” a garment style that could plausibly trigger that label.
Why this matters
These examples illustrate how closely tech companies can profile users from purchase histories and behavior. Such profiles can be useful for personalized recommendations, but they can also feel invasive when they include intimate or awkward assumptions. Reviewing the account settings and using the “Manage your information” option gives users a way to see, and in some cases edit or remove, the inferred attributes Amazon associates with their accounts.
In short: if you want to know what Amazon thinks about you, navigate to Account > Your Shopping preferences > Manage your information to review the range of assumptions, from practical shopping preferences to more personal — and sometimes uncomfortable — conclusions.
