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Amazon.com is receiving some criticism for making it even more difficult for users to log off of its system.

Amazon Makes It Tough To Log Off

Over at InfoWorld a reader explains the frustrating experience of trying to sign out of Amazon's site. "The 'Sign Out' or equivalent link that for years was at the top of nearly every page is now missing from nearly all pages of those sites. Even the most obvious page where a sign out link should be -- the page acknowledging completion of an order -- offers no way to log out. Amazon and PayPal have turned things upside down and instead of closing a session, they now want us to remain logged in after leaving their site. Why would they do that?"

Amazon responded to the reader in an email explaining it's logging out policy and why a customer might want to stay logged in. "When you log out of Amazon.com, access to your Shopping Cart, 1-Click shopping, and recommendations disappears along with your name. To regain access to the items saved in your cart, to place orders, or to view recommended items, you'll need to log in again. Just click the 'personalized recommendations' link that appears near the top of the page, and enter your e-mail address and password."

Amazon wants it's customers to stay logged in because the fewer clicks it takes to make a purchase and the more clicks it takes to log out means more revenue for Amazon but it also poses a security risk to the customer.

On the issue of security Amazon does recommend that customers log out of its site if they are using a system that is being shared with other users such as a computer at a library. Amazon says if individuals do not log out on a public computer that other users "will be able to view your account information and also will able to place an order from your account. So, I request you to log out from your account before leaving the system."

If you are using a computer that will be shared with other people it would be wise to either not shop from Amazon or to make sure that you log off of its system if you do make any purchases.