Amazon's About You page goes viral over AI-inferred shopper profiles
Amazon's "About You" page has become a social media hit over the personal traits it infers about shoppers, with users sharing entries such as "has flat buttocks," "cannot keep real plants alive" and "does not trust people easily," and at least one incorrect detail. Launched on 13 May, the page draws on purchase history, searches, saved lists, product reviews and conversations with the Alexa for Shopping assistant, and shoppers can view, edit or delete each item under Shopping preferences in their account settings or ask Alexa, "What do you know about me?" Most entries are generic and some are wrong.
It pushes AI-driven user profiling out of the back end and in front of shoppers, subjecting both recommendation transparency and the accuracy and privacy limits of inferred traits to public scrutiny.
Amazon’s “About You” page has become a social media hit, for the things it says about shoppers. One user on Threads found that Amazon had concluded she “has flat buttocks”, Business Insider reported on Tuesday. Her post set off a wave of others sharing their own profiles.
About You lists the details Amazon has drawn from each customer’s activity to shape product recommendations. Shoppers can open it, see what Amazon has inferred, and edit or remove each item.
What Amazon thinks it knows
Other profiles shared on Threads say users “cannot keep real plants alive”, “treats cats as biological children” and “has no friends”, The Verge reported. One user found that Amazon says she does not “trust people easily”.