43 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
# Amazon
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Amazon is the root of abuses of privacy, freedom, human rights, civil liberties, consumer rights, and the environment:
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1. Amazon mounts mutlifaceted attacks on **privacy**
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1. Amazon is making an astronomical investment in facial recognition to exploit a market worth [$8 billion](https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2020/06/15/amazon-microsoft--ibm-slightly-social-distancing-from-the-8-billion-facial-recognition-market) which will destroy physical travel privacy worldwide. Amazon's innaccurate technology [erroneously matched](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/amazon-facial-recognition-false-positives-recognition-congress-criminals-a9536351.html) 100 US and UK politicians to criminals. Amazon also developed the technology by [unlawfully](https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-google-and-microsoft-sued-over-photos-in-facial-recognition-database) using people's images without consent to train facial recognition products.
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1. Amazon deploys Ring and Alexa to surveil neighborhoods and surveil the inside of homes.
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1. Amazon keeps Alexa recordings and transcripts [indefinitely](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/amazon-confirms-it-keeps-your-alexa-recordings-basically-forever/)
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1. Amazon’s Echo and the smart TVs [monitor everything you do](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2014/nov/09/amazon-echo-smart-tv-watching-listening-surveillance) -- [even if you disable ad reporting](https://blog.acolyer.org/2020/02/10/watching-you-watch). (Note the research paper is not open to the public because ACM locks their digital library in the exclusive walled-garden of CloudFlare)
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1. Amazon [paid](http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1401518&view=late1) $195k to fight privacy in California by lobbying [against the CCPA](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/facebook-donated-200000-to-kill-a-privacy-law-but-now-its-backtracking/).
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1. Amazon supported CISA.
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1. *War on cash* is war on privacy: Amazon's grocery stores [do not accept cash](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/amazon-go-isnt-trying-to-kill-cashier-jobs-its-after-something-bigger). They impose the same surveillance as ordering online from Amazon. Cashless shops discriminate against the [6.5% of the US population](https://www.fastcompany.com/90389594/aclu-cash-free-retail-amazon-sweetgreen-privacy) that does not have a bank account.
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1. Amazon spent $30 million and ranked in the top 5 promoters of Facebook ads in 2012 (thus substantially feeding a privacy abuser).
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1. Facebook and Amazon made [a secret deal](https://gizmodo.com/amazon-and-facebook-reportedly-had-a-secret-data-sharin-1831192148) with to give Amazon access to Facebook's data about users.
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1. The Kindle Swindle informs Amazon when the user reads books that didn't come from Amazon. It also tells Amazon which pages each user reads.
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1. Amazon distributes NRAtv which promotes a privacy-hostile political party and the resulting policies. Also sells the Trump line of suits in their webshop.
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1. Sensitive data for 100 million people banking at Capital One was [leaked](https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/07/29/capital-one-says-hacker-breached-accounts-of-100-million-people-ex-amazon-employee-arrested) by an Amazon worker. Amazon [refuses blame](https://web.archive.org/web/20200618091312/https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-capital-one-hack-data-leak-breach-paige-thompson-cybercrime-1451665) for it. Capital One was [fined $80M](https://www.zdnet.com/article/capital-one-fined-80-million-for-2019-hack) for failing to do risk assessment.
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1. Amazon is responsible for **human rights** and **civil liberties** abuses
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1. Amazon [supplies](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon-employees-demand-company-cut-ties-with-ice/) [unlawfully developed](https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-google-and-microsoft-sued-over-photos-in-facial-recognition-database) facial recognition to law enforcement who use it to abuse civil liberties, despite [protest](https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/393583-amazon-employees-protest-sale-of-facial-recognition-tech-to-law) by Amazon employees, 40 civil rights organizations, and [150,000 petitioners](https://www.zdnet.com/article/now-amazon-employees-rebel-end-police-facial-recognition-contracts-ice-support).
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1. Amazon [supplies](https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/393583-amazon-employees-protest-sale-of-facial-recognition-tech-to-law) AWS [to ICE](https://www.usaspending.gov/#/award/62522780) and Palantir, a database firm that exploits social media to [facilitate](https://www.govtech.com/biz/Documents-Reveal-ICE-Used-Palantir-for-Deportations.html) ICE and CBP to enforce Trump's inhumane *zero tolerance* immigration policy that entails child-parent separation. Palantir was also co-founded by a notorious xenophobic and billionaire backer of Donald Trump: Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel founded Palantir to [help ICE](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-customs-border-protection-testing-google-cloud-anthos-2019-8?international=true&r=US&IR=T) deploy algorithms that find people to deport. Peter Thiel called Google "unpatriotic" for "[not embracing opportunities](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-customs-border-protection-testing-google-cloud-anthos-2019-8?international=true&r=US&IR=T) to work with federal agencies" thinking that Google appeased employees who opposed inhumane treatment of immigrants (he was unaware that Google's announcement and action differed).
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1. Amazon supports Breitbart (the right-wing extremist site) by [advertising](http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/02/337k-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-stop-advertising-breitbart) there.
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1. Amazon uses FedEx (an NRA-supporting ALEC member who feeds republican warchests via ALEC and NRA [republican policy is xenophobic and detrimental to gun control and individual privacy]).
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1. Amazon in Germany [hired](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neo-nazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html) "security" guards from a company of Nazi sympathizers to intimidate and repress foreign workers. Reporters came to cover this, and the guards tried to arrest them and take their cameras. (2013)
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1. Amazon is detrimental to **consumer rights**
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1. Amazon distributes ebooks in a way that [strips](http://gnu.org/philosophy/the-danger-of-ebooks.html) users of many freedoms.
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1. The Amazon Kindle has a back door that can erase books. Amazon was [caught](http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others) remotely erasing thousands of copies of 1984.
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1. Amazon rents textbooks to students with a requirement not to take them [across state lines](http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/16/amazon-restricts-students-bringing-certain-textbook-rentals-across-state-lines).
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1. Amazon is notorious for **mistreating employees** despite its wealth and growth.
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1. Amazon runs an extreme sweatshop that diminishes quality of life. The consequential mental health crisis is [evidenced](https://gizmodo.com/report-amazon-warehouses-called-911-for-mental-health-1833220938) by 189 calls from Amazon warehouses to 911 in five years.
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1. Amazon drug tests its employees, thus intruding on their privacy outside the workplace and also harming their healthcare.
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1. [oppressive and callous attitude](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/amazon-devastating-expose-accuses-internet-retailer-of-oppressive-and-callous-attitude-to-staff-10458159.html) toward staff.
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1. [55-hour work weeks](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/amazon-workers-working-hours-weeks-conditions-targets-online-shopping-delivery-a8079111.html)
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1. 90,000+ warehouse employees treated like cattle ([7 examples](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/12/7-examples-how-amazon-treats-their-90000-warehouse.html))
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1. Amazon proliferates **censorship**
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1. Amazon has [partnered with the MPAA](https://torrentfreak.com/inside-the-mpaa-netflix-amazon-global-anti-piracy-alliance-170918/) to campaign for repression of sharing on the net.
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1. Amazon cut off service to Wikileaks, claiming that [whistle-blowing violates its terms of service](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-knocked-off-net-dns-everydns).
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1. Amazon is detrimental to the **environment**
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1. Amazon [powers](https://www.greenamerica.org/blog/10-reasons-not-shop-amazon-prime) 50% of their servers with unclean energy.
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1. Amazon's excessive packaging [destroys](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbird1/2018/07/29/what-a-waste-online-retails-big-packaging-problem) 1 billion trees annually. ([examples](https://www.buzzfeed.com/morenikeadebayo/amazon-packaging-needs-to-chill-the-fuck-out))
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1. Amazon [retaliates](https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/04/29/Leaving-Amazon) against employees who seek climate action.
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1. Amazon works for BP and Shell to deliver a [machine learning service](http://qklhadlycap4cnod.onion/watch?v=v3n8txX3144) to discover locations to drill for oil and gas.
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1. Amazon has [been caught](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/google-contributions-climate-change-deniers) financing climate deniers.
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