Does Amazon Track HWID? First, Which Amazon Do You Mean?

You sign in to Amazon on a second computer. Does it know it's you? You open an Amazon game after a penalty. Does it recognize the PC? Both questions get phrased as “Does Amazon track HWID?”, but they are not the same question.

If you mean Amazon.com in an ordinary web browser: Amazon can recognize a browser or device through account activity, cookies and other technical signals, but a normal web page cannot simply read your motherboard or drive serial number. If you mean a game installed on Windows: that software has a different level of access; Amazon Games has not publicly identified the exact hardware fields or matching rules it uses for any particular penalty.

That distinction is more useful than a yes-or-no answer. It also keeps you from mistaking an account restriction for a hardware ban.

What does “HWID” mean here?

It is not one universal number tucked away in every computer. People use hardware ID to mean a firmware-provided system UUID, a board or drive serial, a network identifier, or a fingerprint assembled from several signals. A Windows installation identifier such as MachineGuid is another kind of value altogether. Our guide to HWID, IP addresses and browser fingerprints separates them in more detail.

So the useful follow-up question is: which product is running, and what access does it have?

What Amazon says about the shopping site

Amazon's Privacy Notice says it collects certain information automatically when a browser or device accesses its services. Its examples include IP addresses, browser or device information, cookies and other identifiers. The notice covers Amazon Services broadly; it does not say that visiting an Amazon product page gives that page access to a PC's SMBIOS UUID.

A browser is a deliberate boundary. A normal website can ask for browser-exposed information, but it cannot run the Windows command that reads Win32_BaseBoard.SerialNumber on your computer. Browser extensions, locally installed software and information you deliberately upload are different cases. Nor does “no motherboard serial” mean “anonymous”: if you sign in, your account itself is a strong link, with or without a distinctive device.

For sellers worried about accounts being associated, that is the practical takeaway. Shared contact or payment information, account actions and ordinary network/browser signals are separate from raw hardware serials. Amazon does not publish a complete account-linking rulebook; do not treat a change of browser or computer as proof that accounts are unrelated or that a restriction has ended.

What changes when you install a game?

A PC game is not confined to the browser's JavaScript APIs. Amazon's New World Easy Anti-Cheat troubleshooting page documents that the game uses EAC and that a message such as “Login Blocked: Suspicious Software or Corrupted Install Detected” can be an EAC detection block. This tells us that a local anti-cheat component is involved. It does not, by itself, tell us which serial numbers Amazon stores, whether a particular player has a hardware ban, or how long any device restriction lasts.

The distinction between can access and does use in this case matters. Windows software with appropriate access can request some firmware and device values; you can inspect several yourself with the read-only commands in our Windows HWID reference. But running those commands does not reproduce an anti-cheat's private fingerprint or show a publisher's records. Even a blank or generic UUID can be normal on some systems or virtual machines.

Amazon's New World penalty appeal instructions direct players to check their penalty after signing in with Steam and explain that each penalty may be appealed once. Check the official penalty record first. An EAC launch error, a suspended account and an alleged restriction on the physical PC are different problems. Our “Am I HWID banned?” guide explains why symptoms alone are not proof.

If you're trying to resolve a problem, start here

• Retail or seller account restricted? Read the actual account notice and use the relevant Amazon support or appeal channel. A local HWID readout will not tell you why an account was linked or restricted.
• Game will not launch? Save the exact error text; follow the game's official EAC troubleshooting guidance before calling it a ban.
• Game penalty shown? Review its stated type, duration and appeal deadline in the official portal. Provide accurate account and incident details, not a list of guessed hardware serials.
• Curious about your own machine? The portable Windows report can display selected Windows-reported identifiers locally. It cannot tell you which, if any, Amazon product collected them, and it cannot check a private ban list. Avoid posting the full report publicly.

Frequently asked questions

Can Amazon.com see my motherboard serial if I only visit the website?

Not through an ordinary browser page. That does not prevent Amazon from recognizing your signed-in account, setting cookies or processing other browser and network information disclosed in its privacy notice.

Is a “device identifier” in a privacy notice the same as an HWID?

Not necessarily. It might refer to an app or advertising identifier, a cookie, or another product-specific value. The phrase alone does not establish access to firmware serials.

Does an EAC error mean Amazon Games has HWID-banned me?

No. Record the error and check the game's support and penalty pages. Without a publisher confirmation, you cannot infer the enforcement type from one failed launch.

Bottom line: Amazon can recognize devices in more than one way, but “Amazon tracks HWID” is too imprecise to be useful. Identify the service and the kind of identifier before deciding what its tracking—or a restriction—means.