The French Data Protection Authority (FDPA) issued a $35 million fine to Amazon for its excessive surveillance of its employees, including the company’s relentless tracking of employee performance and breaks, as well as the implementation of a video monitoring system without informed employee consent.
The Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertes (CNIL), ruled that Amazon’s system of measuring how quickly its employees scanned items and how long they took breaks was unnecessary and intrusive. The trillion-dollar company had implemented a “Stow Machine Gun Indicator” that required an item to be scanned in no less than 1.25 seconds after the previous one and was immediately alerted when an employee was not keeping up with the required pace.
Amazon also employed an “idle time indicator” and an “latency under ten minutes indicator” which alerted the company when an employee took a break for ten minutes or more and when a scanner was interrupted for up to ten minutes. Because of the large amount of pressure this system placed on Amazon’s employees, CNIL declared the system as extremely excessive, stating that it is “illegal to set up a system measuring work interruptions with such accuracy, potentially requiring employees to justify every break or interruption.”
In its ruling, CNIL examined the three indicators and determined that they led to an excessive monitoring of Amazon’s employees by the company. Specifically, the Commission found that the processing of the Stow Machine Gun Indicator meant that nearly any activity of an employee can be constantly monitored to the nearest second, and errors are common. The use of the other indicators made it possible to constantly monitor any time an employee’s scanner is interrupted even for a small amount of time.
Amazon Charged with Unauthorized Employee Surveillance
CNIL additionally stated that Amazon was holding on to employee surveillance data for an exorbitant amount of time of 31 days. Amazon should not be permitted to collect “every detail of the employee’s quality and productivity indicators collected using the scanners over the last month,” the ruling said. The Commission stated that it would be enough to review the surveillance data on a mere weekly basis.
FDPA also discovered that Amazon engaged in video surveillance of employees without their informed consent. This type of surveillance, without adequate notice, is a violation of the privacy protocols contained within General Data Protection Regulation, the French Authority said.
“We strongly disagree with the CNIL’s conclusions, which are factually incorrect, and we reserve the right to file an appeal,” Amazon said in a statement. “Warehouse management systems are industry standard and are necessary for ensuring the safety, quality and efficiency of operations and to track the storage of inventory and processing of packages on time and in line with customer expectations.”
This is not Amazon’s first time being charged with violations of the General Data Protection Regulation rules. In July 2021, Luxembourg issued the tech and retail giant a record fine of $886 million for violations stemming from its data processing practices. 
Jacob Horowitz is a contributing editor at Compliance Chief 360°