What Online Retailers Actually Do With Your Data After You Check Out

I shop online a lot. It’s convenient, I can usually find exactly what I’m looking for and, living in Tokyo, it’s sometimes the easiest way for me to get products that aren’t readily available here. I find what I want, place the order and generally don’t think much about what happens after that.

But retailers have plenty to remember. Every product I look at and every purchase I make can reveal something about how I shop and what I might spend money on next. Some of that information makes shopping easier for me, but it can also be used for advertising or become valuable to other companies.

I’m not going to stop shopping online because of that, and you probably aren’t either. But knowing what retailers can do with your data makes it a lot easier to decide how much of it you actually want to give them.

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