Foreign media revealed! Amazon is conducting all-round surveillance?

This year is a critical year for Amazon. The epidemic has caused Amazon's market share to surge, breaking its own record for the highest market value at one point, and also sending its brother-in-law to the number one position since the inception of the Forbes list.

However, the media recently revealed shocking news that Amazon has been monitoring its employees through various channels. Not only does it use monitoring data to "call in" inefficient employees, but it also uses a series of means to restrict employee unions.

According to foreign media research reports, Amazon has long used tools such as navigation software, wristbands, security cameras and recordings to monitor its workers in warehouses and supermarkets.

Moreover, this situation has been seriously aggravated after the epidemic. Amazon has added a large number of thermal imagers, object scanners, etc. in offline workplaces on the grounds of epidemic prevention and control. Obviously, Amazon does not only use these things for epidemic prevention. The data fed back by these sensing devices is collected by Amazon to monitor the work efficiency of workers.

(Amazon's eyes are everywhere)

Not only that, Amazon also uses a special evaluation system, with the help of indicators such as staff emotions and preferences, to infer which unions will have more radical tendencies, and then interfere with the union work of the warehouse to prevent the union from organizing workers to strike, protest and other negative activities.

Such all-round monitoring by my brother-in-law is indeed a huge scandal. Being an Amazon warehouse employee means almost no privacy. This matter quickly aroused discussion and condemnation of Amazon in the United States. Some government agencies have come forward to express the need to ban such invasive forms of worker supervision. Employers such as Amazon should obtain approval from state and federal agencies to adopt non-invasive tracking measures that will not harm workers.

The significance of this incident to us sellers is that since Amazon monitors its employees in such an all-round way, will it also conduct the same intensive monitoring and data collection on sellers?

Amazon's performance since the outbreak is too dazzling, and it is truly a pillar of the pandemic economy. However, a big tree will attract the wind, and the attention brought to Amazon by such dazzling performance is not a good thing. The US government summoned my brother-in-law to attend an antitrust hearing at the end of July, which can be regarded as targeting the big tree of Amazon.

At this hearing, my brother-in-law generously admitted that there may be collection and use of sellers' data. And it is also possible to use sellers' data to develop products that compete with sellers.

Although the nature of this is different from all-round monitoring of employees, the latter is obviously more serious, so this hearing will eventually punish Amazon and order it to make corrections, but it will go through a long process of meetings, verification, legislation, etc. Sellers don’t know when they will see the policy implemented.

Now that Amazon has been exposed to such a surveillance scandal, it will greatly intensify the public's protest against Amazon's abuse of power. The government may therefore introduce relevant regulations in a relatively short period of time, requiring Amazon to rectify its existing surveillance measures, which may include the monitoring and use of sellers' data.

So this scandal is a good opportunity for us sellers to accelerate the government's supervision of Amazon's monopoly. The day when my brother-in-law can no longer act recklessly may come sooner than we think.

Amazon itself is aware of this situation, so it has taken relatively small actions towards sellers and buyers recently, and even released some policy news to please the government and consumers, just to create a better public image for itself and reduce the possibility of government sanctions against it.

Whether the government takes action to supervise and restrict Amazon, or Amazon introduces favorable policies to gain reputation, it is good for sellers. Sellers can rest assured and prepare for the upcoming Primeday in the near future.