what_s_wrong_with_amazon
Table of Contents
work with deportation centers
military contracts and cooperation with police
- The Details about the CIA deal with Amazon https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/
- Amazon Ring “smart doorbell” working for the police https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/29/ring-amazon-police-partnership-social-media-neighbor
usage of non-renewable energy in datacenters(~30% Coal)
Amazon and fossil fuel industry
Workers exploitation
- Neo-Taylorism: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/02/amazon-wristband-surveillance-scientific-management https://www.economist.com/business/2015/09/10/digital-taylorism http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1028973.shtml https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/14/amazon-worker-cage-staff
- Amazon warehouse workers say they are forced to speed up and ignore safety rules. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/05/hate-lugging-cat-litter-dont-make-us-amazon-warehouse-workers-do-it
- Amazon seems to organize some of its warehouse workers to say good things about their work. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/23/amazon-fc-ambassadors-twitter-working-conditions
- Devices are assembled in sweatshop conditions: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/09/human-cost-kindle-amazon-china-foxconn-jeff-bezos
- Injured workers become homeless: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/accidents-at-amazon-workers-left-to-suffer-after-warehouse-injuries
- Amazon 'regime' making British staff physically and mentally ill, says union https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/18/amazon-regime-making-british-staff-physically-and-mentally-ill-says-union
- Delivery drivers have no time to got to the toilet: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/13/help-amazon-driver-hot-foot-it-to-shops
- A large number of Amazon workers rely on food stamps for assistance https://thinkprogress.org/amazon-workers-rely-on-food-stamps-24ab86dd6495/
- Employs ex-military in management positions: https://www.businessinsider.de/amazon-und-aldi-fuehrungskraefte-der-bundeswehr-gesucht-2018-1
Union busting
- leaked internal training on union busting: https://gizmodo.com/amazons-aggressive-anti-union-tactics-revealed-in-leake-1829305201 https://youtu.be/uRpwVwFxyk4
Amazon's Influence
Amazon's enormous size gives company power to influence markets and politics. While it is actually a monopoly but is not regulated as monopoly should be.
Cooperation with opressive structures
Intentionally slows down shipping for customers without "Prime" subscription
No Cash
Amazon Go stores do not accept cash as payment method - customer surveillance
Amazon Kindle
- devices contain a backdoor allowing company to delete books from devices. https://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/ http://boingboing.net/2012/10/22/kindle-user-claims-amazon-dele.html
- Results generated by Amazon's search engine are partly determined by promotional fees extracted from publishers: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/amazon-beware-friendly-internet-giants-google-facebook
- Tells Amazon when user reads E-Book that dis not come from Amazon
Consumer rights
- Amazon closes customers' accounts, which implies confiscating their money, if they return too many defective products: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/18/banned-by-amazon-returning-faulty-goods-blocked-credit-balance
Support of state censoship
- Turned off domain-fronting support in own Cloud(Google did the same): https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17308508/amazon-web-services-signal-domain-fronting-ban-response
- Is a member of MPAA, anti-piracy alliance: https://torrentfreak.com/inside-the-mpaa-netflix-amazon-global-anti-piracy-alliance-170918/
- denied service for Wikileaks: https://www.theguardian.com/media/blog/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-knocked-off-net-dns-everydns
- Amazon, Apple, And Google Are Distributing Products From Companies Building China's Surveillance State https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/apple-amazon-google-apps-blacklist-china-xinjiang
Surveillance
- Amazon Echo Software Updates policy allows company to convert smart speeakers into full-time listening device at any moment
- Amazon always require customers to identify themselves
- Smart TV is tracking everything the users do https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2014/nov/09/amazon-echo-smart-tv-watching-listening-surveillance
- Amazon wants kids to be dependent on its data-gathering device from the moment they wake up until they go to bed at night: https://theintercept.com/2018/05/11/experts-say-keep-amazons-alexa-away-from-your-kids/
- Amazon and Facebook have a secret data-sharing agreement: https://gizmodo.com/amazon-and-facebook-reportedly-had-a-secret-data-sharin-1831192148
- Alexa (as well as Googles smart speaker) connect with other smart devices in your house and use them for tracking your habbits: https://www.bloombergquint.com/pursuits/your-smart-light-can-tell-amazon-and-google-when-you-go-to-bed
- “We retain customers' voice recordings and transcripts until the customer chooses to delete them” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/amazon-confirms-it-keeps-your-alexa-recordings-basically-forever/#
- Delivery drones have cameras and apply computer vision to detect people
Tax avoidance
Support of far-right and neo-nazi structures
- Amazon supports Breitbart, the right-wing extremist site, by advertising there. http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/02/337k-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-stop-advertising-breitbart/
- Amazon in Germany hired “security” guards from a company of Nazi sympathizers to repress foreign workers. Reporters came to cover this, and the guards tried to arrest them and take their cameras. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neo-nazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html
- Amazon was a member of ALEC. ALEC is the right-wing lobbying group that promotes voter-suppression laws and “shoot first” laws, as well as attacks against wages and working conditions in the US. http://www.prwatch.org/node/11473 https://stallman.org/archives/2012-mar-jun.html#2_May_2012_%28ALEC%29
what_s_wrong_with_amazon.txt · Last modified: 2019/12/08 19:20 by jeffb