Manage your Amazon Browsing History
Amazon stores your browsing history when you are on the shopping site, and may use the information to display item suggestions to you.
If you have been to Amazon before, chance is that the shopping site displays suggestions to you whenever you visit the site again.
It happens that Amazon displays suggestions to you that you are not interested anymore. Maybe you bought one of the items already -- offline or online -- or made the decision not to buy such an item at that point in time.
Whatever the reason, you may want an option to manage the browsing history on Amazon so that these items are no longer suggested to you.
Manage your Amazon browsing history
You may manage your browsing history on the Amazon website. The process is relatively straightforward, and may be used to remove items from the site that you looked at in the past.
Step 1: Open the Amazon website
First thing you need to do is open the Amazon website. You find the "browsing history" link at the top of the page right underneath the search bar and to the right of Departments.
Note that you may not see a browsing history link on country-specific Amazon pages. If that is the case, select "your name's" Amazon link instead. That page links to "your browsing history" which opens the same page as the "browsing history" link.
Step 2: Manage the History
The page that opens may highlight recent items, and featured recommendations. You may get options to remove items from there right away, but if you want to manage your entire browsing history, you need to do the following.
On the right of the page is a manage history link. Click on that link, to display recent browsing items.
You will notice that only some items are displayed there, and not all. The best option that you have is to select the "remove all items" button to clear the full browsing history.
If you are not interested in suggestions at all, you may turn the browsing history off instead.
Closing Words
If you don't find Amazon's suggestions particularly useful, or don't want the company to record your browsing history, then you may turn off the feature and be done with it.
This can be useful as well id you share the same user account with someone else, or if someone else may be with you when you are opening the Amazon site as it won't expose the browsing history in that case. (via Dave)
Now You: Do you find shopping site suggestions useful?
Amazon shopping suggestions are very useful. Especially relating to books. Book suggestions always reflect my interests and show me valuable items. This is in sharp constrast with the so-called added value of physical bookshop owners, who brag about their unique “knowledge” and “power to assist” the customer.
What I have actually witnessed in supposedly high-brow bookshops is a) assistants unable to find reference books I had enquired about, even though they had a computer database at their fingertips and the book was actually displayed on their own shelves, b) assistants telling me I shouldn’t read a specific book I had enquired about, because it did not align with their own political prejudices.
So yes, Amazon all the way.
Amazon stores a lot of information in their database, but have no room left to store that I want to disable my Browsing History so they have to store in a cookie. And as I don’t keep cookie longer than my browsing session, this setting is useless to me … I feel Amazon doesn’t really want to stop keeping track of what I do …
> you may turn off the feature and be done with it
Unfortunately, this has not been my experience. I have to turn off the Amazon History feature quite often, as Amazon turns it on again unbidden. They do not understand that No means No, and they are pissing off a good customer.
@Clairvaux: Most of my Amazon purchases are non-book items which are hard or impossible to find in my local shopping radius. Sometimes when seeking unusual hardware items I will read Amazon customer comments to help guide my search, although I may ultimately buy the item elsewhere. When I am done with my search, I don’t want Amazon to keep pestering me, trying to guess my next project. Actually, it’s rare for me to find any shopkeeper with good suggestions, although reading customer experiences can be quite valuable.
@bsod: I have amazon.com white-listed, allowed to store a cookie, but that does not seem to help the History situation. I think they turn History on again when I log in and buy something.
Thanks Martin, I didn’t know that.
Sigh. When I’m hoping to find a specific item for the best possible price, I search for it on Amazon. I don’t even have to spend much time looking, because a few clicks will render me an email that will arrive in the next few days. It will say something like, “Based on your recent search . . .” and then there’s a list of links to just the item(s) I need. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, either Amazon or one of their sellers has the best price. Where else online can you ask questions and get answers about something before buying? Where else are returns so quick, easy, and cost free?
I do edit my browsing history from time to time. Sometimes I’ve just looked at something out of curiosity or to check something out for a friend.
P.S. No. I don’t work for Amazon. Yes. I am very ashamed for being such a fan girl.
I stopped using Amazon completely ever since they charged my C/C for an Amazon Prime membership which I specifically chose not to purchase. Afterwards I had a hell of a time getting the charges returned and the “membership” canceled. Will never do business with them again and have purged Amazon, as best I could, from all my PC’s. I’m sure others have had better luck with Amazon then I have. Just grateful that there are other providers for on line purchases than that web site. Needless to say, I don’t worry about Amazon’s browsing Hx anymore…
I like their book recommendations. as I may find out about a new book by an author I like. They seem to ignore eBooks they should know about, and they are not always the cheapest place to purchase an item. Fortunately I live in a rural place, so for now I do not have to worry about being hit by a drone at my front door.
amazon rubbish. in canada we have to pay sometimes double for the exact same items available across the border. even though we have a free trade agreement we are not allowed to purchase from the USA. Unless of course we drive down.
That isn’t Amazon. That’s the respective rights holders. Some items I can buy on Amazon UK, others not. I download a lot of music. 7Digital restricts me to the US store, even though an item may be found in Canada or Europe. I think even New Egg needs to have a Canadian store. Also, it’s a managed trade agreement, not a free trade agreement. Freedom is anathema to government mentalities. (Do I sound like a Yank? ) :-))
As for prices, Amazon isn’t always the cheapest.
Thanks a lot ! I had been wondering how to remove this for a long time !