Amazon gets too nosy on employees, gets $35M fine

Amazon has been fined $35 million by French regulators for having an "excessively intrusive system" to monitor its warehouse employees. The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), targeted Amazon France Logistique for its strict tracking system.

The CNIL criticized the company's practices of:

• Requiring employees to use barcode scanners to monitor their tasks like storing items on shelves or preparing them for shipment.

• Sending error messages for actions done “too fast”

• Tracking idle time of 10 minutes or more,

• Monitoring interruptions between one and ten minutes.

According to the CNIL, the level of accuracy and detail in measuring work interruptions was illegal since it almost forced employees to justify every break or interruption.

The investigation also focused on the use of a handheld barcode scanner known as the "Stow Machine Gun" which allowed Amazon to monitor employees to the nearest second. The system violated several GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) articles where the CNIL said that the data collection and practices were too much.

Amazon defended its warehouse management systems, claiming they are the traditional standard. However, the CNIL argued it was too strict, constant and at such a large scale that was different from normal monitoring practices.

The regulator also accused Amazon of not properly informing employees about the tracking and highlighted security concerns with access to the company's video surveillance software. The password to access Amazon’s video surveillance was also not strong enough and was even shared among several users. The data collected from Amazon’s system was also stored for 31 days in which the CNIL deemed too excessive.