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Prevent Amazon Echo from ruining your shopping surprise. Here's how

Turn this setting off before your family finds out you bought them gifts.

Katie Teague Writer II
Katie is a writer covering all things how-to at CNET, with a focus on Social Security and notable events. When she's not writing, she enjoys playing in golf scrambles, practicing yoga and spending time on the lake.
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Katie Teague
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Make sure your Echo's light never turns yellow again.

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You probably shopped Amazon's Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday deals this year, and some of your purchases were probably holiday gifts that you don't want others in your house to know about. Unfortunately, your  Amazon Echo  will let everyone know you've been shopping if you don't turn that setting off in the Alexa app.

When you have a house full of people who talk to the same Amazon Echo, it can be tough to keep purchases a secret. When there's a notification, a yellow pulsing light will appear on your Echo (and everyone in the house knows what that means). When someone asks Alexa about the notification, the Echo will read off a package is on the way or that it has been delivered. 

Turning that setting off will stop the yellow pulsing light on your Echo that comes on when you've made an Amazon purchase, so your family will never know when you've bought something. 

Watch this: How to get great deals on Black Friday

When you turn off the yellow light, you're turning off all notifications, so make sure to tell everyone who relies on the notifications that you're switching them off, even temporarily. 

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Turn "Where's my stuff?" requests off.

Katie Conner/CNET

Here's how to turn that tattling setting off now.

1. In the Amazon Alexa app, tap the three stacked lines. 

2. Select Settings.

3. Tap Notifications.

4. Select Amazon Shopping.

5. Under the Say or show item titles section, it says "Let Alexa say or show titles for items you've ordered." Toggle off the switches that say For items in delivery updates and Including items in your shopping cart marked as gifts.

6. Take it a step further by toggling the switch off for Out for delivery and Delivered. This will be helpful if you don't want anyone to know you've bought something. That's it! Now you can shop in peace without nosy relatives trying to figure out what you've bought.

Want to know more about how Amazon Echo can ease your mind? See how you can use Amazon Echo to get the best sleep of your life and learn more about what the light ring colors on Amazon Echo mean.

The 54 best Cyber Monday 2019 deals (just updated)

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Originally published earlier this year.