In a statement to The Atlantic, a spokesperson for Amazon said that the company values consumer privacy and that the assistant is completely optional. In an additional statement provided after publication of this article, Amazon clarified that the Assistant does not collect personally identifying information from users. Product or price data automatically collected by Amazon Assistant is not connected to any customer identifiers,” the statement reads. We do not use Amazon Assistant information in our advertising business.\”Amazon isn’t really “Buying” data that you “Own,” but paying for access to a data vein that other companies are already tapping. Nor does Facebook or Amazon exactly “Buy” or “Sell” it. Amazon will use your purchasing data to improve its targeting, slicing its enormous user base into ever more refined categories that can then be targeted ever more specifically. That’s what Amazon is actually “Buying” here: the raw materials to supercharge its targeting.