Amazon customers are venting their frustration with the e-commerce giant’s latest email policy. This summer, some shoppers began seeing generic descriptions instead of exact product names in receipts and order-related emails. For instance, a car engine air filter might now appear as an “automotive item,” requiring readers to check Amazon’s website or app for more details. The change, which echoes a similar 2020 tweak that was later reversed, has sparked backlash among users. One Reddit thread has garnered 450 comments over the past two months, with many Amazon users criticizing the new system. “I just noticed this today and I HATE IT,” one commenter wrote. “I order things both for work and home, on two different cards. Now I have to click through to see which is which when things ship? Lame.”
Other users highlighted why the change matters to them, from managing businesses to budgeting apps that pull product information from Amazon’s emails. Amazon said the update was made for privacy reasons and is designed to “direct customers to our app and website for the latest information on their orders,” according to a spokesperson. The change “reduces customer information shared outside the Amazon app and website to further improve customer privacy,” the spokesperson added.
Some customers have suggested other possible motivations for the shift. Information about what shoppers buy online has long been valuable to advertisers and increasingly useful for training AI. Last month, for example, Google agreed to pay $10 million for anonymized employee data, such as work emails and messages, from Spirit Airlines—information that could be valuable to the search giant, experts told Themoneytimes.
“I’m wondering if this is because they don’t want AI tools to be able to easily scrape sales data?” wrote one Reddit user on a post about Amazon’s change that attracted 162 comments. When asked whether the company was trying to limit what third parties could scrape from its emails, the Amazon spokesperson said the change was intended to “help protect customer information.”
A message from an Amazon customer service representative, posted on a Github forum, explained that the change was meant “to minimize the risk of package theft by not disclosing the specific contents of your shipment in publicly visible communications.” The message, verified by Themoneytimes, also stated that the less‑informative emails “maintain confidentiality for gifts, surprises, or personal items you may not want others in your household to see.”
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the contents of the message.
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