Amazon "Probe": Employee Monitoring Everywhere

Privacy has always been a common test for the global Internet industry.

Recently, research reports released by the open market institute show that Amazon relies on comprehensive monitoring of workers to increase production, which may limit the company's Union operations across the United States.

Founded in September 2017 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the open market institute is an independent organization dedicated to studying changes and problems in policies and laws and exposing the monopoly situation of technology companies. The research found that Amazon uses tools such as navigation software, item scanners, wristbands, thermal cameras, security cameras and video devices to monitor employees in its logistics warehouses and stores.

Amazon is systematically monitoring, classifying and analyzing the private social media pages of its flex drivers, independent contractors who deliver packages and miscellaneous items to Amazon and whole foods supermarkets in more than 50 cities in the United States and several other countries, according to documents.

"In the United States, the media is very concerned about this." In an interview with the 21st century economic report, Ke Zhenxing, a lecturer at the Law School of Nankai University, said that since there are no direct legal provisions in the United States, the academic community is more concerned with the rational elements of corporate behavior. In the discussion, it is also relatively macro. It may not be such a specific issue as monitoring, but the protection of workers' personal information.

There are still gaps in American law

The open market institute report points out that Amazon's monitoring infrastructure is undermining the company's union activities to prevent collective worker organizations from advocating safer working conditions and higher wages and benefits. Amazon has a long history of preventing workers from collapsing their infrastructure. And Amazon employees flow frequently, which may be caused by the restriction of labor union organizations.

According to reports, Amazon has created a heat map and used data such as team member sentiment and diversity index to calculate which of its stores may have higher trade union organizational risk. Amazon's actions have also led to serious consequences. According to the report, the rate of workplace injuries in Amazon warehouses is so high that the national occupational safety and Health Council listed it on the list of the most dangerous workplaces in the United States in 2018.

From 2013 to 2018 alone, 189 mental health emergency service calls were recorded in 46 warehouses in 17 states, including attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts and other mental health events.

The open market institute also called in the report to ban invasive forms of worker surveillance. Congress and state legislatures should enact regulations requiring employers to disclose in plain language the surveillance practices they use or intend to use to monitor employees, the report said. State and federal agencies should then be asked to approve the monitoring measures that employers are trying to implement.

"A simple search of the keywords' algorithm employee surveillance 'will find a lot of relevant reports. According to the report, the algorithm technology used by employers in the United States has gone beyond physical monitoring and positioning, and will also use AI to read what is in the minds of workers. " Zhenxing kodao.

Although the federal law of the United States does not specifically aim at the protection of employees' information in the workplace by private employers, the law provides some specific aspects related to employees' privacy. Mr. Cheng Yuanyuan, a partner of Kingwood law firm, stated in his article introduction to American labor law that the Federal Privacy Act restricts employers from obtaining information of federal employees, and the federal eavesdropping act / Electronic Communication Privacy Act prohibits intentional interception or disclosure of any private communication.

Situational integrity theory needs to be connected with context when defining privacy. Some people in American legal circles believe that whether the privacy right is violated depends on whether the information violates the contextual integrity. For example, doctors are allowed to obtain information about a person's sexual orientation based on the original information. However, it is against this principle for employers to obtain and use such information when investigating candidates in recruitment.

Privacy protection becomes a consensus

"If in Europe, some of Amazon's actions are explicitly prohibited by law." In Europe, although there are no direct regulations for AI to be used for workplace monitoring, the general data protection act of the EU (hereinafter referred to as "gdpr") has already dealt with this issue, such as revealing ethnic or ethnic origin, political views, religious or philosophical beliefs, personal data of trade union members, and genes that uniquely identify natural human beings The processing of data, biometric data, health, sexual life or sexual orientation of natural persons should be prohibited.

In addition, Amazon recently posted an advertisement on its website for an analyst, whose tasks include investigating union rights. The ad was then abruptly deleted. Labor union system has a long history in the United States, and Amazon has a long history of friction with trade unions. The National Labor Relations Act explicitly prohibited five types of "unfair labor practices", including interference in employee gatherings and employers' control of labor organizations.

At present, there is no law in China. With the improvement of the awareness of workers' rights, disputes in this respect may arise in the future, and we need to study these legal issues. " Ke Zhenxing said that at present, the protection of personal information in the civil code can be applied to information protection in the workplace, including legal issues arising from monitoring and positioning.

Article 111 of the Civil Code stipulates that "personal information of natural persons shall be protected by law. Any organization or individual that needs to obtain other people's personal information shall obtain and ensure information security according to law, and shall not illegally collect, use, process or transmit other people's personal information, or illegally trade, provide or disclose other people's personal information. "

However, in the domestic Internet industry, incidents and risks of privacy leakage are still emerging in endlessly. According to the gyro Research Institute, the number of reported leakage accidents worldwide has increased from 3261 in 2016 to 5183 in 2019. In terms of the amount of data leaked, in 2016 it was 2.325 billion, in 2017 it was about 7 billion, and in 2019 it reached nearly 8 billion, more than three times that of 2016. The enterprises and institutions involved in these data leakage involve all industries, including public service, finance, energy, medical treatment, Internet, education, transportation, manufacturing, etc.

On the other hand, since the gdpr came into effect in May 2018, Google, Facebook and other technology giants have respectively received 3.9 billion euro and 3.7 billion euro fines from the EU. Ke Zhenxing suggested that the information obtained by enterprises through AI can be divided into sensitive information and non sensitive information. Sensitive information can be prohibited from obtaining by enterprises like gdpr, and non sensitive information should be mainly examined for rationality. In terms of procedure, enterprises are required to improve the transparency of information acquisition and processing, and trade unions should play a greater role.

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