Amazon.com Privacy Notice
Last updated: October 1, 2008. To see what has changed, click here.
Amazon.com knows that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting Amazon.com, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice.
- What Personal Information About Customers Does Amazon.com Gather?
- What About Cookies?
- Does Amazon.com Share the Information It Receives?
- How Secure Is Information About Me?
- What About Third-Party Advertisers and Links to Other Websites?
- Which Information Can I Access?
- What Choices Do I Have?
- Are Children Allowed to Use Amazon.com?
- Does Amazon.com Participate in the Safe Harbor Program?
- Conditions of Use, Notices, and Revisions
- Examples of Information Collected
The information we learn from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your shopping experience at Amazon.com. Here are the types of information we gather.
- Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. Click here to see examples of what we collect. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing future shopping for you, improving our stores, and communicating with you.
- Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses Amazon.com or advertisements and other content served by or on behalf of Amazon.com on other Web sites. Click here to see examples of the information we receive.
- E-mail Communications: To help us make e-mails more useful and interesting, we often receive a confirmation when you open e-mail from Amazon.com if your computer supports such capabilities. We also compare our customer list to lists received from other companies, in an effort to avoid sending unnecessary messages to our customers. If you do not want to receive e-mail or other mail from us, please adjust your Customer Communication Preferences.
- Information from Other Sources: We might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our account information. Click here to see examples of the information we receive.
- Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide features such as 1-Click purchasing, Recommended for You, personalized advertisements on other Web sites (e.g., Amazon Associates with content served by Amazon.com and Web sites using Checkout by Amazon payment service), and storage of items in your Shopping Cart between visits.
- The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the Web site of its manufacturer. However, because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of Amazon.com's essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to add items to your Shopping Cart, proceed to Checkout, or use any Amazon.com products and services that require you to Sign in.
Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others. We share customer information only as described below and with subsidiaries Amazon.com, Inc. controls that either are subject to this Privacy Notice or follow practices at least as protective as those described in this Privacy Notice.
- Affiliated Businesses We Do Not Control: We work closely with affiliated businesses. In some cases, such as Marketplace sellers, these businesses operate stores at Amazon.com or sell offerings to you at Amazon.com. In other cases, we operate stores, provide services, or sell product lines jointly with these businesses. Click here for some examples of co-branded and joint offerings. You can tell when a third party is involved in your transactions, and we share customer information related to those transactions with that third party.
- Third-Party Service Providers: We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.
- Promotional Offers: Sometimes we send offers to selected groups of Amazon.com customers on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business your name and address. If you do not want to receive such offers, please adjust your Customer Communication Preferences.
- Business Transfers: As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores, subsidiaries, or business units. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Notice (unless, of course, the customer consents otherwise). Also, in the unlikely event that Amazon.com, Inc., or substantially all of its assets are acquired, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
- Protection of Amazon.com and Others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Amazon.com, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from customers for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Notice.
- With Your Consent: Other than as set out above, you will receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.
- We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.
- We reveal only the last four digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing.
- It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer. Click here for more information on how to sign off.
What About Third-Party Advertisers and Links to Other Websites?
Our site includes third-party advertising and links to other Web sites. We do not provide any personally identifiable customer information to these advertisers or third-party Web sites. Click here for more information about our Advertising Policies and Specifications.
These third-party Web sites and advertisers, or Internet advertising companies working on their behalf, sometimes use technology to send (or "serve") the advertisements that appear on our Web site directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. We do not have access to or control over cookies or other features that they may use, and the information practices of these advertisers and third-party Web sites are not covered by this Privacy Notice. Please contact them directly for more information about their privacy practices. In addition, the Network Advertising Initiative offers useful information about Internet advertising companies (also called "ad networks" or "network advertisers"), including information about how to opt-out of their information collection.
Amazon.com also displays personalized third-party advertising based on personal information about customers, such as purchases on Amazon.com, visits to Amazon Associate Web sites, or use of payment services like Checkout by Amazon on other Web sites. Click here for more information about the personal information that we gather. Although Amazon.com does not provide any personal information to advertisers, advertisers (including ad-serving companies) may assume that users who interact with or click on a personalized advertisement meet their criteria to personalize the ad (for example, users in the northwestern United States who bought or browsed for classical music). If you do not want us to use personal information that we gather to allow third parties to personalize advertisements we display to you, please adjust your Advertising Preferences.
Which Information Can I Access?
Amazon.com gives you access to a broad range of information about your account and your interactions with Amazon.com for the limited purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that information. Click here to see some examples, the list of which will change as our Web site evolves.
What Choices Do I Have?
- As discussed above, you can always choose not to provide information, even though it might be needed to make a purchase or to take advantage of such Amazon.com features as Your Profile, Wish Lists, Customer Reviews, andAmazon Prime.
- You can add or update certain information on pages such as those referenced in the "Which Information Can I Access?" section. When you update information, we usually keep a copy of the prior version for our records.
- If you do not want to receive e-mail or other mail from us, please adjust your Customer Communication Preferences. (If you do not want to receive Conditions of Use and other legal notices from us, such as this Privacy Notice, those notices will still govern your use of Amazon.com, and it is your responsibility to review them for changes.)
- If you do not want us to use personal information that we gather to allow third parties to personalize advertisements we display to you, please adjust your Advertising Preferences.
- The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-on's settings or visiting the Web site of its manufacturer. However, because cookies allow you to take advantage of some of Amazon.com's essential features, we recommend that you leave them turned on. For instance, if you block or otherwise reject our cookies, you will not be able to add items to your Shopping Cart, proceed to Checkout, or use any Amazon.com products and services that require you to Sign in.
Amazon.com does not sell products for purchase by children. We sell children's products for purchase by adults. If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.
Does Amazon.com Participate in the Safe Harbor Program?
Amazon.com is a participant in the Safe Harbor program developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union. We have certified that we adhere to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles agreed upon by the U.S. and the E.U. For more information about the Safe Harbor and to view our certification, visit the U.S. Department of Commerce's Safe HarborWeb site. If you would like to contact Amazon.com directly about the Safe Harbor program, please send an e-mail to safeharbor@amazon.com.
Conditions of Use, Notices, and Revisions
If you choose to visit Amazon.com, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice and our Conditions of Use, including limitations on damages, resolution of disputes, and application of the law of the state of Washington. If you have any concern about privacy at Amazon.com, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it. Our business changes constantly, and our Privacy Notice and the Conditions of Use will change also. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, unless you have instructed us not to, but you should check our Web site frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Notice applies to all information that we have about you and your account. We stand behind the promises we make, however, and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of customer information collected in the past without the consent of affected customers.
Related Practices and Information
- Conditions of Use
- Discussion Boards
- Community Rules
- Help department
- Most Recent Purchases
- Your Profile and Community Guidelines
Information You Give Us
You provide most such information when you search, buy, bid, post, participate in a contest or questionnaire, or communicate with customer service. For example, you provide information when you search for a product; place an order through Amazon.com or one of our third-party sellers; provide information in Your Account (and you might have more than one if you have used more than one e-mail address when shopping with us) or Your Profile; communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise; complete a questionnaire or a contest entry form; compile Wish Lists or other gift registries; provide employer information when opening a corporate account; participate in Discussion Boards or other community features; provide and rate Reviews; specify a Special Occasion Reminder; share information with Amazon Friends; and employ other Personal Notification Services, such as Available to Order Notifications. As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name, address, and phone numbers; credit card information; people to whom purchases have been shipped, including addresses and phone number; people (with addresses and phone numbers) listed in 1-Click settings; e-mail addresses of Amazon Friends and other people; content of reviews and e-mails to us; personal description and photograph in Your Profile; and financial information, including Social Security and driver's license numbers.Automatic Information
Examples of the information we collect and analyze include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information such as browser type, version, and time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, and platform; purchase history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other customers to create features such as Purchase Circles and Top Sellers; the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Web site, including date and time; cookie number; products you viewed or searched for; and the phone number you used to call our 800 number. We may also use browser data such as cookies, Flash cookies (also known as Flash Local Shared Objects), or similar data on certain parts of our Web site for fraud prevention and other purposes. During some visits we may use software tools such as JavaScript to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.Information from Other Sources
Examples of information we receive from other sources include updated delivery and address information from our carriers or other third parties, which we use to correct our records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily; account information, purchase or redemption information, and page-view information from some merchants with which we operate co-branded businesses or for which we provide technical, fulfillment, advertising, or other services (such as Target.com); search term and search result information from some searches conducted through the Web search features offered by our subsidiaries, Alexa Internet and A9.com; search results and links, including paid listings (such as Sponsored Links); and credit history information from credit bureaus, which we use to help prevent and detect fraud and to offer certain credit or financial services to some customers.Co-branded and Joint Offerings
Examples of businesses with which we offer joint or co-branded products and other offerings include Target, CD Now, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Shutterfly, J&R, Godiva, Avon, Macy's, PacSun, Eddie Bauer and Northern Tool + Equipment.Information You Can Access
Examples of information you can access easily at Amazon.com include up-to-date information regarding recent orders; personally identifiable information (including name, e-mail, password, communications and personalized advertising preferences, address book, and 1-Click settings); payment settings (including credit card information and gift certificate, gift card, and check balances); e-mail notification settings (including Alerts, Available to Order notifications, Delivers, Recommended for You, Special Occasion Reminders, Weekly Movie Showtimes, and newsletters); recommendations (including recent product view history, prior order history, and Favorites); shopping lists and gift registries (including Wish Lists and Baby and Wedding Registries); Marketplace seller accounts; and Your Profile (including your product Reviews, Requests, and Recommendations, Listmania lists, "So You'd Like to..." guides, personal profile, people you tagged as interesting, and Amazon Friends).
