Have you ever shopped on Amazon and then noticed ads and recommendations for related products popping up everywhere you browse? Or perhaps you share an Amazon account with family members and don‘t want them seeing everything you search for. If so, you may be wondering how to clear your Amazon search history. Don‘t worry – you‘re not alone.
Clearing your search history is an important way to protect your privacy and maintain confidentiality. In this easy-to-follow guide, I‘ll show you step-by-step how to view and delete your Amazon browsing history. I‘ll also discuss why you may want to turn it off completely.
Let‘s get started!
Why Browsing History Matters on Amazon
Before jumping in, it helps to understand why Amazon tracks your browsing history in the first place – and why you may want to delete it.
As the largest online retailer with over 300 million active customer accounts globally, Amazon captures a huge amount of data on shopping behavior. They leverage this to personalize the customer experience through:
- Targeted recommendations
- Relevant ads across the internet
- Predictive auto-complete suggestions
This can be useful when you‘re trying to find related products. However it also poses privacy risks, namely:
- Companies profiling your personal interests
- Security vulnerabilities if data gets hacked
- Loss of confidentiality if you share an account
That‘s why clearing or disabling your search history can be so important.
Below I‘ll show you exactly how to view your history and delete items or the whole thing with just a few clicks.
How To Access Your Amazon Browsing History
Amazon conveniently lets you view your recent search and browsing history directly in your account settings:
- Go to Amazon.com and log into your account
- Click Returns & Orders in top right corner
- Under Ordering and shopping preferences, click View or edit your browsing history
That‘s all there is to it!
You‘ll then see a list of your recent Amazon activity. This could include:
- Search terms
- Product categories
- Specific items you clicked on
- Videos watched
- Brand pages visited
Mine shows the Nintendo Switch games I was shopping for recently:
Now let‘s go over your options for removing items from this list.
Step 1: Delete Specific Items from Your History
If you just want to remove certain items, it‘s easy:
- Check the box(es) next to items you wish to delete
- Click Remove to delete selected items only
This is useful for getting rid of sensitive or private searches while keeping other browsing history intact.
Step 2: Clear All Amazon Search History
To delete your entire Amazon browsing history:
- Click the Manage History drop down
- Select Remove all items from view
- Confirm your choice in popup window
And that‘s it – your history will be erased!
One thing to note is that it will start tracking again on your next search or product click if the setting remains on. Which brings us to…
Step 3 (Optional): Turn Off Browsing History
If you want to prevent Amazon from compiling any browsing data in the future:
- In Manage History, toggle Turn browsing history on/off to the Off position
This will stop tracking and give you consistent privacy moving forward.
| Browsing History | Alexa Recordings | |
|---|---|---|
| What‘s recorded | Searches, clicks | Voice commands |
| Accessibility | Account settings | Alexa app or site |
| Can disable/delete | Yes | Yes |
To recap, you have full control over your Amazon browsing history:
- View recent search and shopping activity
- Selectively delete items or clear all history
- Disable future tracking for ongoing privacy
Why You Should Clear Your Amazon History
Now that you know how to delete your Amazon history, let‘s revisit why this matters for your privacy and security:
- Removes ability for Amazon to profile your personal interests over time
- Stops 3rd party tracking pixels from targeting ads at you
- No risk of account hacking exposing your activity
- Greater confidentiality if you share Prime membership
- Ongoing control by turning off data collection
- Peace of mind related to your privacy
While disabling history won‘t stop all potential tracking, it does limit Amazon‘s ability to leverage your past shopping behavior. This lets you browse and purchase more freely without concerns over your data.
So don‘t hesitate to clear or turn off your search history periodically. Your privacy is worth it!
I hope this guide gave you confidence to take control of your Amazon account security. Let me know if you have any other questions!
