Plus, what you need to know before you do it

It’s been more than two decades since Jeff Bezos launched Amazon from his garage. Thanks to buyers and sellers with active accounts on Amazon, the once online bookstore is now one of the largest online retailers, enjoying undisputed popularity.

Chances are you’ve purchased something from Amazon in the past, but maybe you’re ready to leave because you don’t agree with the company’s practices or policies. Or maybe you just want to control your spending or switch from Amazon to another online retailer.

Whatever the reason, you can permanently delete your Amazon account and remove your sensitive information from the web. In my case, Amazon knows so much about me from my purchases that I wanted to delete my current account and create a new one so they wouldn’t have so much private information about me.