How to keep your Amazon gift purchases a secret

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Keep your Amazon gifts a secret this Christmas with Kurt 'CyberGuy' Knutsson

Amazon purchases are more and more frequent for gift-buying around the holidays, here's how to keep your gift recipients out of the surprise thanks to Kurt 'CyberGuy' Knutsson.

Kurt’s easy Amazon holiday hack to hide what gifts are being bought online for loved ones sharing the same prime shopping account.  Follow these simple steps to keep gifts under the tree a secret between just you and Santa.

Think back to the days when hiding Christmas presents meant sticking them in a secretive place in the attic or basement. You not only have to hide the physical gifts you've bought, but now you need to cover your online purchase footsteps as well. 

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Don’t worry, you’re not the only one shopping for Christmas gifts on Amazon. Unfortunately, your spouse, kids or siblings may be using your Amazon prime account as well. So how do you still add the element of surprise if you can see what everyone has bought on Amazon? No problem, Amazon has created a few features that will help keep your purchases hidden, so Christmas morning is full of surprises.

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Turn on Amazon Household

This may be the simplest solution. Amazon Household is an Amazon feature that allows you to share your Prime benefits with the family. You can create up to two adult accounts, four for teenagers and four child profiles. Amazon Household keeps all shopping purchases and notifications for shipping separate. So no need to worry about your Christmas present being revealed before giving it out. 

With Amazon Household, you not only get to keep your purchase separate, you can also share eBooks, audiobooks, digital content and games.

Create your Amazon Household here.

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Archive an Order

This is very useful if you share your account with multiple people or have sneaky kids who know your password and will look at your purchase history. The following will only work on a desktop or laptop browser (not on a tablet or mobile device).

1. Log In to your Amazon account
2. Click on "Returns and Orders" in the top right corner

Christmas gifts under the tree with string lights and garlands. (Matthias Cooper)

A list of your orders from the past three months will appear

1. Scroll to find the item you want to hide
2. Below the item, you will see "Archive Order" A window will appear, and you’ll need to select "Archive order" again If you do not see "Archive Order" select "View order details" to the right of the purchased itemOn the right-hand side, select "Archive order"
3. A window will appear, and you’ll need to select "Archive order" again
4. If you do not see "Archive Order" select "View order details" to the right of the purchased itemOn the right-hand side, select "Archive order"
5. On the right-hand side, select "Archive order"

Even though the item will no longer appear in Your Orders, you can still view it in "Archived Orders" from Your Account.

Hide from Alexa

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Now, if you have some real sleuths in your household, you are going to need to do more than just archive your purchases to make sure your gifts are still surprises. You can start by changing your Alexa settings.

1. Open the Alexa app
2. Click "Settings"
3. Find and Select "Notifications" then select "Amazon Shopping"
4. Scroll to "Say or Show Item Titles" now turn this feature off

Now Alexa will still notify you when a package is being delivered, but it will not say what the item is.

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Clear Your Search History

We all have that one relentless person, determined to find out which presents were purchased this year. Another step to keep them off your tracks is deleting your "Search History."

The following will only work on a desktop or laptop browser (not on a tablet or mobile device).

1. Go to "Account & Lists" in the upper right corner of your browser then, select "Recommendations"
2. Click "Your Browsing History" (text in gray strip towards top of the screen)
3. Select "Manage history" (text towards the right part of the screen).  This will open up a row and reveal "Manage history"
4. Click "Remove all items from view" button
5. Then select "Remove all items from view" yellow button that will appear in the center of your screen.

Now that you know how to keep your Christmas shopping private, make sure to check out some of our top tech products of 2022.

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