Amazon Silk FAQs

What is Silk?

Silk is a web browser available on compatible Amazon devices, such as Fire tablets, Fire TV devices, and Echo Show devices, that allows you to quickly and easily access your favorite websites. With Silk, you can get the latest news, check your e-mail, shop at your favorite store, and more.

What personal information does Silk collect and what are my options for managing how that personal information is used?

Silk collects personal information about your use of the app and its features in order to operate, provide, develop, and improve the products and services that Amazon offers our customers. Please review our Privacy Notice, which also governs your use of Silk, to understand our privacy practices. Below are examples of the types of personal information Silk collects, along with a description of some of the ways Amazon uses that information and your options for managing its use.

Silk stores a history of the websites you’ve visited on a particular device, to allow you to easily find the websites you visit most or to search for a particular web page you previously visited. This browsing history is stored locally on your device. You can view, search, and clear some or all of your browsing history from your History tab. You can also enable Private Browsing in the Silk menu. See the FAQ on Private Browsing below for more information.
Silk sends logs or crash reports to Amazon when Silk encounters an issue to help us troubleshoot the browser and improve its performance. These logs or reports include the URL where Silk ran into an issue or recent browsing history and may contain identifiers such as IP addresses or device ID.
To support the search experience, Silk sends a truncated URL of the web page where you perform a search (e.g., www.bing.com/search) to Amazon. This truncated URL does not include your search query (e.g., https://www.bing.com/search?q=cats for a search for “cats”) and may be associated with your Amazon account. We collect this truncated URL for troubleshooting and analytics purposes. For example, we may use this information to ensure that search pages load quickly.
Silk sends browsing data (e.g., URLs visited, timestamps) to Amazon for additional troubleshooting, product improvement, and analytics purposes. For example, we may use this information to ensure that websites load properly, or we may use this data to improve our products and services. Outside of the logs and crash reports collected when Silk runs into an issue and the truncated search URL described above, we do not store URL information associated with your Amazon account. You can control whether this domain data is used for product improvement and analytics purposes within the Silk Privacy settings by visiting Settings > Privacy and security > Data sharing.
If you enable the optional customised recommendations feature available on some Fire tablets, Silk sends your browsing history to Amazon to help you find content (such as articles or websites) that you might like based in part on your browsing activity, such as the websites you visit and how long you spend on each webpage. We do not store this information associated with your Amazon account. You can control this feature by visiting Settings > Privacy and security > Customised Recommendations.

What information is shared with third parties when I use a search engine in Silk’s address bar?

The text you enter in Silk's address bar or search bar is sent to a third-party search engine so that it can provide you with search-related features, such as suggesting relevant search terms or providing results in response to your search query. To personalize these features, the search engine may store a cookie on your device and access this cookie when you use the address bar or visit its websites. Amazon Silk selects the initial search engine to which text in the address bar is sent, and we may change the search engine in the future without notice to you. In the Silk settings, you can change your search engine, enable or disable the personalization of suggested search terms, or clear cookies stored by websites. The search engine’s privacy policy applies to information that it collects.

What is Private Browsing?

When you use Private Browsing, pages you view when using a Private tab will be removed from your Silk browsing history after the tab is closed. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept. As is true for most web browsers, in Private Browsing, your activity might still be visible to your internet service provider or the websites you visit (including websites affiliated with Amazon). To enable Private Browsing, select the “New Private Tab” option in the Silk menu.

What about cookies?

Cookies are a small file that websites may store on your device to keep you signed in, remember your site preferences, or provide you with relevant content. The privacy policy of a third-party website applies to the information that is collected when you visit it. In the Silk Privacy settings, you can clear cookies stored on your device by websites. For information about cookies, pixels, and other technologies on Amazon-affiliated websites, see our Cookies Notice.

Does Silk offer a way to sync or backup my bookmarks in the Amazon cloud?

Yes. On Fire tablets, you can back up your Silk settings, including your bookmarks, to the Amazon cloud by enabling the Backup and Restore feature. For more information, see the Backup and Restore FAQ.

You can also use the Silk Bookmarks extension (plug-in) available for the Google Chrome browser to save a copy of your Chrome bookmarks to your Amazon account, so that they’re available when you use Silk on your Fire tablet. For more information, see our help page. .