# Can I review anonymously at Amazon ?



## 5ngela (Sep 7, 2015)

Dear All, 

I need your help. I just cannot seem to find straight answer to my question. Can you review anonymously at Amazon ? Thank you in advance for all your kind answers.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

5ngela said:


> Dear All,
> 
> I need your help. I just cannot seem to find straight answer to my question. Can you review anonymously at Amazon ? Thank you in advance for all your kind answers.


Only to the extent that you haven't supplied a real name to Amazon. If your account is in the name of Murgatroyd Humperdink but your real name is Sally Smith, I guess you're reviewing anonymously. But, I believe if Amazon discovers you've done such a thing, they will frown on it and will likely suspend your account.

You can, however, via "Your Account" set a 'public name' which is what will show when you review. So that adds a level of anonymity, but not complete anonymity. You don't need to provide any other public information so the casual searcher wouldn't know anything else about you.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Yes, just change the public name.  Then you are anonymous, especially if you make your profile private (and/or don't enter any data).  

I don't think Amazon really cares if you don't use your real name on an account either.  I know several people who never used their real name.  Not that they do it to review, but I don't believe there is a rule about it. 

You'll notice that many reviews have "nicknames" as the reviewer.  "Iluvbooks" or "fantasyreader" or "luvkndle" and things like that.


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## 5ngela (Sep 7, 2015)

Ok, thank you for all your kind answers. I thought I could review product anonymously like answering anonymously at Quora. But it appears I can only use public name.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

5ngela said:


> Ok, thank you for all your kind answers. I thought I could review product anonymously like answering anonymously at Quora. But it appears I can only use public name.


Well, yeah. But if your 'public name' is not something anyone you know would recognize as you, you are, effectively, anonymous. AMAZON can figure out who you are, because you have to have a real credit card on file to buy anything from them, so they could connect to the real you that way. (unless you're using someone else's card; that's a different issue!  ) But, barring a concerted hack attack, no one who reads the reviews is going to know who you are if you use a completely made up name.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Of course you can review anonymously at Amazon, or rather you can review pseudonymously.  The actual name on the account itself is known to Amazon as "real" names are on the credit card attached to the account and the name and address to which packages are sent.

However, you can choose any name you want via your profile and that is what will show on public reviews.  The default name if you don't choose to identify your profile is "Amazon Customer" - you can't get much more anonymous than that, there are thousands of people who review only as Amazon Customer.  My husband wrote a book review a couple of weeks ago about a book he felt very strongly about.  It is the one and only review on our account.  Even though the account is associated with his "real name", because he did not choose a Profile name it shows up on the book page as from "Amazon Customer" and as a verified purchase.

I know of authors and sellers who have one account for business and a second "personal" account for products/books they buy for themselves to review from.  My understanding is each account must have a different email address associated with it, a different credit card attached, and that you never, never, NEVER review the same item on both accounts.  Of course now you also have to spend $50 from a new account before you can review from it.

A couple of years ago there was a petition to Amazon (started and championed by the famous author Anne Rice) to only allow reviews, comments to reviews, and Amazon forum posts from "real" names.  She believed it would decrease what she viewed as online bullying in reviews and posts.  It went nowhere and caused a rather large uproar at the time.  Too many people value their personal privacy and have concerns about online security to make real names a requirement.  Amazon has always maintained their customers' rights to online privacy.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

crebel said:


> Of course you can review anonymously at Amazon, or rather you can review pseudonymously. The actual name on the account itself is known to Amazon as "real" names are on the credit card attached to the account and the name and address to which packages are sent.
> 
> However, you can choose any name you want via your profile and that is what will show on public reviews. The default name if you don't choose to identify your profile is "Amazon Customer" - you can't get much more anonymous than that, there are thousands of people who review only as Amazon Customer. My husband wrote a book review a couple of weeks ago about a book he felt very strongly about. It is the one and only review on our account. Even though the account is associated with his "real name", because he did not choose a Profile name it shows up on the book page as from "Amazon Customer" and as a verified purchase.
> 
> ...


Interesting -- I was under the impression that, if you didn't change it, it used either the email address on your account or the name on the associated credit card. But, I admit I don't review enough to have paid all that much attention. So maybe I'm remembering back to last century when I first became an Amazon customer.


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## 5ngela (Sep 7, 2015)

crebel said:


> The default name if you don't choose to identify your profile is "Amazon Customer" - you can't get much more anonymous than that, there are thousands of people who review only as Amazon Customer. My husband wrote a book review a couple of weeks ago about a book he felt very strongly about. It is the one and only review on our account. Even though the account is associated with his "real name", because he did not choose a Profile name it shows up on the book page as from "Amazon Customer" and as a verified purchase.


Very interesting. Is it only allowed for Verified Purchaser or you can choose not using public name when reviewing book you read from other place ? Thank you


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

5ngela said:


> Very interesting. Is it only allowed for Verified Purchaser or you can choose not using public name when reviewing book you read from other place ? Thank you


Not sure exactly what you're asking, but, as I understand it, the rules are as follows.

Once you've purchased $50 worth of anything from Amazon via an account, you can review using that account. You don't need to review the things you purchased. You can review things you purchased elsewhere. If you review something you DID purchase on Amazon, the review gets the verified tag. If you review something you purchased elsewhere, it does not. Either way, I think the name that shows will be either 'Amazon customer' or your public name as you have set it in your profile.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Apparently there is a limit to how many things you can review that you purchased somewhere else:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/11/25/amazon-instituted-cap-product-reviews/

But you can still review quite a lot!


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

MariaESchneider said:


> Apparently there is a limit to how many things you can review that you purchased somewhere else:
> 
> http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/11/25/amazon-instituted-cap-product-reviews/
> 
> But you can still review quite a lot!


The limit of 5 non-verified purchase reviews from Sunday to Saturday does not apply to books, movies, or any digital media.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Correct.  But the OP didn't say whether she only wanted to review books so I thought the article might be relevant.  I did kind of wonder why they excluded those items from the rules.  I do tend to buy books at other vendors and if I do review, I tend to review on Amazon (although I'm not doing much reviewing these days unless it's just at the blog).


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

MariaESchneider said:


> Correct. But the OP didn't say whether she only wanted to review books so I thought the article might be relevant. I did kind of wonder why they excluded those items from the rules. I do tend to buy books at other vendors and if I do review, I tend to review on Amazon (although I'm not doing much reviewing these days unless it's just at the blog).


True, she didn't specify!

My impression is that Amazon is still trying to weed out the incentivized reviews for products from coupon clubs, etc. You know, those reviewers who post 5-star reviews for 5-10 products a day in hopes that manufacturers will send them big ticket items. But, they don't want to limit reviews for ARCs, borrowed books, etc.

Even though some people batch review products when they finally get around to it, there really aren't many who would consistently have more than 20 reviews a month that weren't purchased from Amazon that they couldn't spread out a week at a time.

From posts on the Top Reviewer and Vine forums at Amazon (Vine products aren't included in the limits either), if someone tries to post a 6th non-verified product review they now get a pop-up that says:

"Sorry, we are unable to accept your review of this product for either one or both of the following reasons: You have submitted the maximum number of non-Amazon Verified Purchase reviews this week. Please try again next week. For more details, visit our Customer Reviews Guidelines and About Amazon Verified Purchase Reviews."

So at least reviews aren't being sent into never-never-land or deleted, they just tell people to wait. Those who worry about their reviewer ranking think an advantage is being given to people who post reviews on movies, music, and books. Amazon will never make everyone happy, will they?


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I figured maybe Amazon was trying to stop the vendors from giving product directly to reviewers instead of going through the Vine program (the Vine program costs the vendors money to be in and apparently they decided they could go around it by finding bloggers and reviewers themselves.  That cut Amazon out of the revenue stream).  But it's hard to say.  Since Amazon made the frequency and number of reviews of books part of the ranking system, books need every review possible.  But they know that, and authors know that and so it seems to me that every time Amazon tries to cut down on "fake" or "bought" reviews, they are opening reasons for companies and authors to cheat.  I'm not sure the left hand reviewer policy guy knows what the right hand reviewer policy is doing!  (I'm in no way advocating cheating.  But we all know it happens.)


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## 5ngela (Sep 7, 2015)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Not sure exactly what you're asking, but, as I understand it, the rules are as follows.
> 
> Once you've purchased $50 worth of anything from Amazon via an account, you can review using that account. You don't need to review the things you purchased. You can review things you purchased elsewhere. If you review something you DID purchase on Amazon, the review gets the verified tag. If you review something you purchased elsewhere, it does not. Either way, I think the name that shows will be either 'Amazon customer' or your public name as you have set it in your profile.


What I mean is whether "Amazon Customer or Kindle Customer" name only for Amazon verified purchaser review or also for non verified purchaser. Anyway, I get your answer. Thank you.


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