Amazon's vague order emails are a privacy move against AI shopping agents
Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful
Amazon has quietly changed its order confirmation emails to list only product categories instead of specific items, frustrating shoppers who now must log in to see what they bought. The Verge reports the change likely stems from Amazon's desire to keep purchase data away from AI-powered shopping tools like Google's Gemini, which can mine emails for personal information. Amazon confirmed it simplified the emails to direct customers to its app and website, reducing information shared outside its ecosystem. This move is seen as a hedge against the 'DoorDash problem,' where AI agents could replace direct website visits.
As customers shop with us more frequently, including on their phones, and use the ‘Your Orders’ page in the Amazon app to get real-time, consolidated order details and delivery status, we’ve simplified several order-related emails to direct customers to our app and website for the latest information on their orders.
- klipklop
Even if you look at your purchase history now they have intentionally destroyed that too. What size shoe did you buy 3 years ago? Too bad we are not telling you!
The purchase/shipped/etc email was the lifeline to tracking your Amazon spending and exactly what you bought. Now that is impossible. It's similar to a business refusing to give you a proper receipt and should be likely illegal.
What 3rd party companies I let hoover up my Amazon purchase emails is none of their business.
- ashdksnndck
I went and looked at order confirmation emails from 2019 and confirmed my memory that back then they didn’t list what items I ordered (but did a few years before). At the time I figured this change was intended to fight against Paribus, a startup that would scan your email and automatically request compensation for late Amazon deliveries.
But then I looked at emails last year and Amazon was sending item names after order again. So it seems like this practice has changed multiple times.
- lubujackson
There is a secondary, more nefarious purpose, near as I can tell. I constantly order items from Amazon that say "arriving tomorrow/Tuesday/etc." then the item invariably doesn't actually arrive when it was supposed to, often outside of Prime 2 day shipping even if a Prime item. But when you go to view the order online it has helpfully updated the arrival date to the new day. They push it as many times as they want to, then act dumb if you call them on it.
I've taken to screenshotting the initial shipping date, but it doesn't make much difference. I don't know what "Prime" even means anymore.
And I live in SF so it's not like there is some logistics problem with my location, either.
- Postosuchus
Looks like you haven't seen what they've done with Order Search. Being a customer since 1994 (yes, when they just came out as a neat way to buy books online), my order history has been an invaluable reference allowing me to find that thing I bought 5 years ago, its specific and the price I paid. Now, instead of a good old substring search, they do some kind of insane fuzzy search which comes up with hundreds of absolutely irrelevant results. They've made it completely unusable.
But I'm sure a good bunch of people got promoted for "enhancing" the search with AI...
- mparnisari
I ordered something yesterday, expecting it today, and the confirmation email contains the actual product images and title (albeit trimmed).