Overview

Amazon now obliges every third‑party seller who gathers, stores, or processes buyer personal data to publish a privacy notice that mirrors the company‑provided template. The rule applies to any seller who accesses customer information through Amazon’s messaging, order details, or external marketing activities, and non‑compliance can jeopardize the seller’s marketplace privileges.

Key Points

• Mandatory disclosure — Sellers who handle any buyer‑identifying information must display a privacy notice that meets Amazon’s prescribed structure, otherwise the account may be flagged for policy violation.
• Template‑driven format — The notice must be “substantially similar” to Amazon’s sample, meaning the headings, order of sections, and core language must align with the template while allowing limited customization for business‑specific details.
• Full data‑flow description — The document must spell out what categories of data are collected (e.g., name, email, shipping address), the exact purposes for use (order fulfillment, marketing, analytics), any third‑party recipients, and the security safeguards applied.
• Buyer rights and contact — Sellers are required to explain how customers can request access, correction, or deletion of their data and must provide a direct contact method such as an email address or web form.
• Impact on account health — Failure to maintain an up‑to‑date, compliant notice can trigger account suspensions, limit access to buyer communication tools, or result in Amazon‑initiated audits.
• Scope beyond Amazon‑only fulfillment — Even sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) but also run a parallel website, run email campaigns, or store buyer data for post‑purchase support must adopt the notice; pure FBA sellers with no extra data collection have a reduced but still present obligation.

How the Privacy Notice Works

1. Download the official template — Sellers retrieve the latest Amazon privacy‑notice template from Seller Central; for example, a seller of custom‑printed mugs downloads the PDF, which contains pre‑written sections on data collection, usage, sharing, and security.