Amazon has deployed a sophisticated system to monitor the online chatter of its Amazon Flex drivers, Motherboard reports. And while the company has in some cases used that data to solve problems for Flex contractors, it’s also keeping tabs on private Facebook groups for discussions about hot-button topics like union organizing, strikes, and warehouse conditions.
Amazon’s “Advocacy Operations Social Listening Team” has poked around Facebook groups, Subreddits, and Twitter in a bid to identify potential problems, such as drivers “planning for any strike or protest against Amazon,” according to Motherboard. That team generates reports that include the names and screenshotted social media posts of drivers who talk about anything Amazon execs might deem noteworthy.
Motherboard became aware of the team after files related to the Social Listening Team were left exposed on a random domain, sharkandink.com. That site does not appear to be linked to Amazon, but the company confirmed to Motherboard that the files were authentic.
The effort was meant to be kept secret. Those logging into the system are met with a warning page that twice warns users DO NOT SHARE, and acknowledges “it will have a detrimental effect if [the captured screenshots fall] within the reach of any of our Delivery partners.”
Amazon told Motherboard that it is no longer looks to closed social media groups for information. “Upon being notified, we discovered one group within our delivery team that was aggregating information from closed groups. While they were trying to support drivers, that approach doesn’t meet our standards, and they are no longer doing this as we have other ways for drivers to give us their feedback.”
Those who work for Amazon Flex deliver packages and groceries for Amazon and Whole Foods. They’re considered contractors and work on their own time, much like an Uber or Lyft driver. But there’s been an ongoing debate over whether gig workers are actually employees instead of contractors. In California, for example, a new state law demands that Lyft and Uber classify their ride-sharing drivers as employees and offer them legally mandated benefits. Lyft and Uber are currently in court fighting it.
Amazon presumably does not want a similar fight on its hands. Motherboard this week also reported that Amazon posted two job listings for intelligence analysts who would keep tabs on sensitive topics “including labor organizing threats against the company.” It later removed them.
