Amazon.com Privacy Notice
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?
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. Scroll
to the bottom of this page 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. Scroll to the bottom of this page to
see examples of the information we receive. A number of
companies offer utilities designed
to help you visit Web sites anonymously. Although we will not be able to
provide you with a personalized experience at Amazon.com if we cannot recognize
you, we want you to be aware that these tools exist.
- 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: For reasons such
as improving personalization of our service (for example, providing better
product recommendations or special offers that we think will interest you), we
might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our
account information. We also sometimes receive updated delivery and address
information from our shippers or other sources so that we can correct our
records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily.
What About Cookies?
- 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,
New for
You, 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. However, cookies allow you to take full advantage of some of
Amazon.com's coolest features, and we recommend that you leave them turned on.
Does Amazon.com Share the Information It Receives?
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 with the subsidiaries Amazon.com, Inc., controls and as
described below.
- Affiliated Businesses We Do Not Control: We work
closely with our affiliated businesses, an example of which is drugstore.com,
our
Health
& Beauty merchant. In some cases, 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.
You can tell when another business is involved in your transactions, and we
share customer information related to those transactions with that business.
- Agents: 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, 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 or assets. In such transactions,
customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets. 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 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.
- 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.
How Secure Is Information About Me?
- 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 five 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.
What Information Can I Access?
Amazon.com gives you access to the following information about you for
the limited purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that
information. This list 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
All
About You,
Wish
Lists, and Customer Reviews.
- You can add or update certain information on pages such
as those listed in the "What Information Can I Access?" section above. 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.)
- 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. However, you will not be able to use such important features as
1-Click and
New for
You if you do not use cookies.
- Click here
to explore products that offer anonymous browsing. In addition, the Federal
Trade Commission provides useful information about online privacy on its own
Web site,
Site
Seeing on the Internet.
Children
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 involvement of a parent or guardian.
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,
arbitration of disputes, and application of the law of the state of Washington.
If you have any concern about privacy at Amazon.com, please send us a thorough
description to feedback@amazon.com, and we will try to resolve it. Our business
changes constantly. This Notice and the Conditions of Use will change also, and use of
information that we gather now is subject to the Privacy Notice in effect at
the time of use. 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.
Related Practices and Information
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;
make an order or an Auction bid; 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
All
About You; communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise; complete
a questionnaire or a contest entry form; compile
Wish
Lists; enter a shopping
Community by
providing employer, school, or other such information; participate in
Discussion
Boards, pursuant to our
Web-Based
Discussion Service Terms of Agreement; provide and rate
Reviews;
specify a
Special
Occasion Reminder or a favorite charity in
Charity Links;
share information with Trusted
Friends; and employ other Personal Notification Services, such as
"Amazon.com Delivers," "Amazon.com Alerts," and "Oprah®". As a result of
those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name, address,
and phone number; credit card information; people to whom purchases have been
shipped, including address and phone number; people (with addresses and phone
numbers) listed in Gift-Click and
1-Click settings; e-mail addresses
of Trusted Friends and other
people; content of reviews and e-mails to us; personal description and
photograph in
About
You; 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 and version, operating system, and platform; purchase history; the
full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Web
site, including date and time; cookie number; products you viewed or searched
for; zShops you visited; your Auction history, and phone number used to call
our 800 number.
|
