The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. While WaPo maintains it operates independently, the Bezos connection raises questions about potential data integration with Amazon's vast consumer profiling infrastructure. Your political news reading creates sensitive profiles of ideological leanings, and WaPo participates in standard digital advertising practices that monetize this data.
| Data Type | Collected | Shared | Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article reading history | Yes | Analytics Partners | No |
| Political interest signals | Yes | Ad Networks | Ad Targeting |
| Topic engagement patterns | Yes | Advertisers | Unclear |
| Account and subscription info | Yes | Payment Processors | No |
| Device and location data | Yes | Ad Networks | Unclear |
| Amazon account linkage (if used) | Optional | Amazon | Unclear |
While WaPo claims editorial and operational independence, the same owner controls Amazon's vast data collection infrastructure. The potential for data sharing—even if not current—represents ongoing concern.
As a major political news source, your reading patterns reveal political interests, ideological leanings, and issue priorities. This sensitive data is valuable for political advertising.
Subscribing through Amazon Prime or linking accounts creates explicit data sharing between WaPo and Amazon. Your news consumption may enhance your Amazon consumer profile.
WaPo participates in programmatic advertising with standard tracking, retargeting, and third-party data sharing. Even subscribers see personalized ads.
Various analytics and advertising partners receive data about reading behavior, enabling cross-site tracking and profile building.
Account settings provide options to limit some advertising personalization and tracking, though these don't eliminate data collection.
WaPo maintains its own privacy policy separate from Amazon, with specific disclosures about news-related data practices.