c.aps.amazon-adsystem.com: How Amazon Tracks Your Browsing for Ads

Amazon’s ad tracker, c.aps.amazon-adsystem.com, watches your online activity to create detailed profiles for targeted advertising. It invades your privacy by collecting data across websites. Here’s what it does and how to stop it.

What Is c.aps.amazon-adsystem.com?

This domain is part of Amazon’s advertising system, designed to track user behavior and serve personalized ads. It captures your interactions with ads and websites, building a profile that follows you online.

Data It Collects

When you encounter Amazon ads, it grabs:

• IP Address: Reveals your location, tied to specific areas.
• Ad Interaction: Logs ad IDs, clicks, and timestamps.
• Device ID: Unique tag for your device, tracking across sessions.
• Browser Fingerprint: Collects plugins and canvas data.
• Page URL: Records full URLs of pages with Amazon ads.
• Referrer URL: Tracks your origin before viewing ads.
• User-Agent: Notes browser details like “Mozilla/5.0.”

This builds a comprehensive ad profile about you.

Who Gets Your Data?

Amazon shares your information with:

• Amazon Advertising Partner: Entities delivering targeted ads.
• Third-Party Adtech Company: Via real-time bidding systems.
• Government Agency: High compliance with data requests per transparency reports.

How to Protect Yourself

Privacy Auditor is here to defend your data. Block this tracker with:

• Tracker Blockers: Use Privacy Auditor to stop scripts.
• VPN Services: Mask your IP with tools like Mullvad.
• Privacy Browsers: Opt for Firefox with tracking protection.
• Cookie Clearing: Delete cookies to disrupt tracking.

Use these together for maximum privacy.

Sources

• Amazon Privacy Notice: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468496
• Amazon Ads Policy: https://advertising.amazon.com/resources/ad-policy/approved-3p-ad-servers

This is a legal disclaimer. All information is provided for educational purposes only.