Amazon: Not Yet Immune to Staff Push Back
October 18, 2018
I recall reading that Jeff Bezos suggested that high technology companies work for the US government. I thought about that suggestion, which was probably ignored by Google and Microsoft, when I read “I’m an Amazon Employee. My Company Shouldn’t Sell Facial Recognition Tech to Police.” Maybe Amazon will give in to employee democracy. On the other hand, the situation will be managed and employees encouraged to take one of the two paths identified below.
The write up explains (in and around the ads covering up the Medium article’s page):
A couple weeks ago, my co-workers delivered a letter to this effect, signed by over 450 employees, to Jeff Bezos and other executives. The letter also contained demands to kick Palantir, the software firm that powers much of ICE’s deportation and tracking program, off Amazon Web Services and to institute employee oversight for ethical decisions.
I am confident that these employees believe that the world’s richest man should do what a “group” of employees want.
On the other hand, Amazon has been chugging along in the policeware sector for a number of years. Rekognition and the Palantir Technologies’ use of the Amazon platform are pretty tiny fish. Amazon, as I demonstrate in my forthcoming four part series about Amazon’s policeware. (You can view the four short DarkCyber videos beginning on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. The second program becomes available on November 6, the third on November 13, and the final program on November 20.)
Amazon has an active contract with a major intelligence agency. Specialist vendors of policeware use the Amazon platform to serve their government customers with specific technology solutions. Examples range from an index of the Dark Web, social media, and the Surface Web updated hourly to crunching numbers to identify persons of interest involved in specific matters of interest to the United States. Furthermore, Amazon has been assembling or “growing” its own vendor, integrator, and contractor ecosystem. Furthermore Amazon is providing policeware services to certain UK agencies. I have heard that there is keen interest in the Amazon policeware services, the streaming data marketplace, the Sagemaker machine learning system, and the advanced analytics the company has integrated into the policeware suite. Do you think tax authorities and regulatory authorities will be interested in some of the policeware capabilities? The grousing employees are not I would wager.
Why?
Watch the DarkCyber Amazon policeware video series.
To sum up, I think that employees who object to what their employers pay them to do have some choices to make:
- Remain on the job. Do good work. Accept their paychecks, bonuses, healthcare and retirement benefits, and any perks that come their way from the employer.
- Find their future elsewhere.
- Transfer to a warehouse job in Indiana or Kentucky and enjoy the minimum wage, the facility breaks, and the opportunity to build those biceps.
i suppose I am old fashioned, but when once accepts money and has a job description which spells out what one does, I am not too keen on spending much time listening to suggestions about what products to make or what contracts to pursue.
Watch for the Amazon video series which is an exclusive on DarkCyber, my weekly news program about policeware, cybercrime, and related subjects. Links to the video will appear in this blog on each Tuesday.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2018
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