As convenient as online shopping has become, it still comes with some privacy pitfalls. When you share an Amazon account with a partner or family member, or use shared devices, your activity and purchases can quickly become public knowledge. For many people, that‘s not a problem – but sometimes, you just want to keep certain purchases to yourself.
Maybe it‘s a gift you don‘t want to spoil the surprise on. Maybe it‘s a personal item you‘d rather not share with your whole household. Or maybe you just want to avoid raised eyebrows or judgy comments about your shopping habits. Whatever the reason, there are times when even the most open book among us wants to shop discreetly.
Luckily, Amazon offers a few ways to keep your orders under wraps. In this guide, we‘ll walk you through exactly how to hide your Amazon activity on a computer, in the mobile app, and on shared Household accounts. We‘ll also dive into some bonus tips for maintaining your privacy while shopping online, and look at the bigger picture of consumer privacy in the age of Big Data.
The Psychology of Hiding Purchases
Before we get into the practical how-tos, let‘s take a moment to acknowledge the complex emotions that can come with wanting to hide a purchase. Consumer researcher Dr. Ryan Howell has found that people tend to hide purchases for two main reasons: to avoid guilt and to maintain a sense of autonomy. (Source)
Guilt often comes into play with purchases we feel we "shouldn‘t" be making, like splurging on ourselves when money is tight or indulging in unhealthy vices. The fear of being judged or shamed by others leads us to keep these purchases secret.
Autonomy is about feeling in control of our own choices. When we share finances with a partner or live with family, we may hide purchases to maintain a sense of independence and privacy. Certain gifts or surprises also fall into this category – we want to maintain the autonomy to choose a gift without input from the recipient.
While the reasons for hiding purchases are understandable, experts caution that keeping secrets from loved ones can put a strain on relationships. If you find yourself frequently hiding purchases out of guilt or fear of criticism, it may be worth examining the root causes and working on honest communication with your partner or family.
But if your hidden purchases are truly occasional indulgences or well-intentioned surprises, a little strategic privacy can help you avoid spoiled gifts and awkward conversations. No judgement here – sometimes a little discretion is the best policy. Here‘s how to practice it on Amazon:
How to Hide an Order on Amazon.com
When you‘re browsing Amazon on a computer, you can keep individual orders private by archiving them. Here‘s how:
- Log into your Amazon account and click "Returns & Orders" from the top menu.
- Find the order you want to hide in your list of past purchases. Click "View Order Details."
- On the order details page, click "Archive Order." Confirm your choice.
The order will now be hidden from your main list of past orders. If you need to view it again later, you can find it by selecting "Archived Orders" from the filter menu above the list.
One important note: Archiving an order doesn‘t completely erase it from your account. It‘s more like sweeping it under the rug than putting it through the shredder. Anyone with access to your account can still find archived orders if they go looking for them.
Amazon retains archived orders in case you need to reference them later for returns or other issues. They also use your order history to inform product recommendations and ad targeting – more on that later. So while archiving an order will keep it out of your default history view, it‘s not a perfect privacy solution.
Hiding Orders on the Amazon App
You can also keep your orders private while shopping on your phone using the Amazon app. Here‘s how to hide an order in the app:
- Open the app and tap the three lines in the bottom menu to open the main menu.
- Tap "Your Orders" and find the one you want to hide. Tap to open order details.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap "Archive Order." Confirm your choice.
To view your hidden app orders later, tap "Filter" at the top of your orders page and select "Archived Orders."
Using Amazon Household for Private Ordering
If you share your Amazon Prime benefits with family using Amazon Household, you may have noticed that Household accounts allow for separate adult user profiles. While this feature is designed to let partners and roommates share Prime shipping without sharing payment methods, it can also be handy for keeping orders private.
When you have separate profiles in a Household, each adult‘s purchase history is visible only on their own profile. Assuming you‘re the only one with access to your personal profile, this adds some privacy to your orders.
However, it‘s crucial to understand that anyone can toggle between the adult profiles in your Household from the "Your Account" menu. The profiles aren‘t password protected. If other members of your Household know how to switch profiles, or get curious about what you‘ve been ordering, it‘s all too easy for them to snoop on your activity.
So while keeping orders on a separate Household profile can keep them out of your shared order history, it‘s not a foolproof privacy strategy. For maximum discretion with sensitive orders, it‘s best to use a fully separate account that only you have the password to.
The Discreet BoxAnother privacy tactic to be aware of on Amazon is the "Ship in Amazon Packaging" option that appears on some product pages. From time to time, you might see a message like this on an item:
"Item arrives in packaging that reveals what‘s inside. To hide it, choose Ship in Amazon Packaging at checkout."
This usually appears on products that ship in their own branded packaging, making it obvious what‘s inside the box. The discreet packaging option will conceal your item inside a plain brown Amazon box, so the contents won‘t be immediately identifiable to the recipient or anyone else who sees the package.
This can be a smart choice when sending gifts (no more snooping!) or receiving sensitive items you‘d rather not broadcast to your household or neighbors. Just be aware that using Amazon‘s packaging does create some extra cardboard waste, so consider whether the privacy benefits are worth the environmental impact.
Maintaining Privacy While You Browse
Of course, your Amazon privacy concerns may extend beyond just your order history. What about keeping your browsing and searching activity private too? Here are a few pro tips for discreet Amazon browsing:
1. Use Incognito Mode
Most web browsers have a private or incognito browsing option that prevents your history, searches, and cookies from being saved. If you don‘t want your Amazon searches coming up in your browser‘s autocomplete or history, always use incognito mode while shopping.
On most keyboards, you can open an incognito window with Ctrl+Shift+N (Chrome) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Firefox). Get in the habit of always browsing Amazon in incognito mode to automatically keep things private.
2. Don‘t Stay Logged in or Save Passwords
It‘s a good general privacy practice to never stay logged into your accounts, especially on shared devices. Log out of Amazon as soon as you‘re done shopping, every time. Avoid saving your Amazon password to your browser or a password manager that other people may be able to access.
The mild inconvenience of logging in each time is well worth the privacy and security benefits. Plus, that extra step can help curb the temptation of mindless impulse shopping!
3. Use a VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that encrypts your internet activity and hides your IP address and location. Using a VPN while browsing Amazon can prevent your ISP, Amazon, or any other third parties from tracking your searches and tying them to your identity.
A VPN offers broader digital privacy that goes beyond just your Amazon activity. It‘s a worthwhile tool for anyone who wants to keep their online life more secure and less trackable.
4. Don‘t Save Your Payment Info
If you‘re really serious about keeping your Amazon activity separate from your real identity, you can go to some lengths to obscure your payment methods too. Some people prefer to buy Amazon gift cards with cash and use those to shop, or use a prepaid debit card not tied to their bank account.
You could also use a virtual credit card service that generates a new card number for each online purchase. That way, your Amazon purchases can‘t be traced back to your primary credit card or bank. This strategy requires some extra steps but can provide a high level of financial privacy.
If you‘re hiding purchases out of shame or fear of criticism, it may be a sign that you need to have an honest discussion with your partner or family about budgeting, expectations, and emotional needs. Compulsive shopping can be a coping mechanism for anxiety or low self-esteem, and hidden spending is often a red flag.
Keeping secrets from those close to us rarely leads anywhere good. It‘s important to distinguish between occasionally keeping a gift or treat to yourself private, versus a pattern of secretive spending that strains your relationships or budget.
The Big Picture of Amazon Privacy
Even if you master the privacy settings on your own Amazon account, it‘s crucial to understand that online privacy is bigger than any one website or app. Every time you browse the web, data about your activity is being collected, analyzed, sold, and used to build detailed profiles of your interests, behavior, and even personality. (Source)
Amazon itself is a massive player in the data economy. They use the information they collect from your searches, purchases, Alexa requests, Kindle highlights, and more to drive their recommendation algorithms and ad targeting. Amazon has built an extremely sophisticated machine learning system that can predict what you want to buy before you even search for it. (Source)
That predictive power is what makes the Amazon shopping experience feel so eerily personalized. But it also raises big questions about data privacy and the trade-offs we make for that convenience. Even if you hide individual purchases from your household, Amazon still has an enormous trove of aggregate data on your preferences and habits. And they‘re hardly the only tech giant creating these detailed consumer profiles.
So what can we do? Short of going completely off-grid, it‘s virtually impossible to shop online with total anonymity these days. But by using the privacy tactics outlined here, along with general digital hygiene practices like strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and avoiding public wifi, you can minimize the privacy you give up for the sake of convenience.
It‘s also worth zooming out and considering the role you want data-hungry companies like Amazon to play in your life. Personally auditing how much of your shopping, watching, reading, and communicating flows through Amazon‘s ecosystem can be an eye-opening exercise. You may find opportunities to diversify where you spend to avoid letting one company build such a comprehensive profile of you.
At the end of the day, adapting your privacy practices is largely about deciding what trade-offs you‘re comfortable with. What information are you willing to share in exchange for personalized recommendations or stored payment info? When does tracking cross the line from convenient to creepy? Educating yourself on how your data is collected and used can help you make intentional, eyes-wide-open choices.
Putting It All TogetherWe covered a lot of ground in this guide, so let‘s recap the key takeaways for keeping your Amazon orders and activity private:
- Use Amazon‘s "Archive Order" option to hide individual purchases from your order history.
- Take advantage of Amazon Household‘s individual user profiles to keep your orders separate from your family‘s.
- Consider Amazon‘s discreet shipping option for items that may arrive in revealing packaging.
- Always use incognito mode when browsing Amazon to avoid saving your search history.
- Log out of your account when you‘re done shopping, and don‘t save your password on shared devices.
- If you want to go the extra mile for privacy, use a VPN and shop with gift cards or virtual credit cards.
- Be aware that hiding purchases can be a red flag for relationship or personal issues that may need to be addressed more directly.
- Understand the bigger picture of how Amazon and other companies track your data, and make intentional choices about your digital footprint.
Armed with this knowledge, you can shop smarter and more discreetly on Amazon without sacrificing too much convenience. Whether you‘re buying gifts or treating yourself, you can feel more in control of who knows what about your purchases.
Just remember, at the end of the day, the most valuable currency we have is trust. A little discretion is fine, but if you find yourself going to great lengths to conceal your spending, it may be time for some honest soul-searching and communication with loved ones.
Here‘s to savvier, more mindful shopping for us all! May your packages arrive swiftly, your gift recipients be surprised, and your budget be balanced. Happy hiding!