(Credit: Shutterstock / Gorodenkoff)
France’s data privacy watchdog organization, the CNIL, has fined Amazon $35 million for the use of an “overly intrusive” employee surveillance system.
The system was being used by a logistics subsidiary of Amazon, Amazon France Logistique, and “measured work interruptions with such accuracy, potentially requiring employees to justify every break or interruption,” Engadget reports.
According to the CNIL, the surveillance software tracked employees via the barcode scanner used to process orders and would call out those who weren’t processing orders at a speed the company found acceptable, sometimes flagging employees who were idle for a single minute.
The CNIL says the system is illegal under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In repose to the ruling; Amazon issued a statement noting: “The use of warehouse management systems is standard industry practice: they are necessary to ensure safe, quality and efficient operations and to ensure inventory tracking and package processing on time and in accordance with to customer expectations.”
The company says it strongly disagrees with the CNIL’s conclusions and reserves the right to appeal its decision.
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