5 ways Amazon monitors its employees, from AI cameras to hiring a spy agency

4 hours ago

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Amazon has come under fire for some workplace practices in the past and amid a recent union effort.
We've rounded up all the tactics the company uses to track employees and contractors.
One of the factors driving pro-union sentiment, workers say, is a feeling of being watched by Amazon.
See more stories on Insider's business page.

Key News Point :
아마존의 Warehouse와 사업 방향을 보면 신체적이 업무가 많은 만큼, 노동 조합이 흔하게 뭉쳐지고 protests가 일어날 가능성이 높음. 그런데 최근 Amazon이 Workplace에서 직원들을 감시하는 Spy-Agency를 고용하고, 이런 union effort를 저지하려고 한 방향이 보이면서 논란이 되고 있음.

특히나 여기서 중요한 것은, Warehouse와 Amazon의 Workplace에서 사용되는 AI Camera들이 이 모든 Controlling의 시점이 되고 있다는 것.

For drivers, there's the controversial Netradyne Driveri system

Drivers for Amazon, many of whom are third-party contractors driving Amazon vans, learned earlier this year that their vans would start to feature a four-part camera with biometric feedback indicators, according to Insider's reporting in February. The system monitors if drivers look away from the road, speed, or even yawn, and then can send a live feed of the recording to managers. Some drivers found the practice invasive, and at least one driver quit in protest, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

When asked for comment about the delivery driver quitting, Amazon provided positive driver testimonials and said to Insider in a statement that it's "investing in safety across our operations and recently started rolling out industry leading camera-based safety technology across our delivery fleet."

For warehouse workers, there's "time off task" and social distancing "assistants"

In April of 2019, Insider reported that the company was instituting a system tracking warehouse workers' "time off task," or the amount of time they are not directly working. The system, per Insider's reporting, can result in a warehouse worker's termination without directly involving a human supervisor or manager. In a statement to Insider at the time, Amazon said "It is absolutely not true that employees are terminated through an automatic system," and maintained that despite automated tracking, personnel decisions involve managers.

Time off task has been a factor in the Bessemer, Alabama, union vote: one worker told Insider that she felt workers were unfairly punished and the system was not sufficiently transparent. The employee also told Insider that managers had the ability to edit time off task "at their discretion."

Time off task는 쉬는 시간을 제외 하고 직원들이 몰래? 쉬는 것들을 말하는데,
Amazon의 여기 저기 설치된 camera들이 직원들의 행동을 모두 감지하고, 이러한 time off task들을 기반으로 직원들을 "침묵하에" 해고 처리한다는 직원의 발언이 있음.

예를 들어, safety를 reasoning하면서 설치되는 카메라들 - 배달 벤에 설치되어 직원들의 눈동자와 하품 등 졸림을 alert하는 시스템들이 있음.

창고에서는 "Time off task" 와 거리두기 "Assistants"가 활동적으로 사용 되고 있음.

This video, which was included in an Insider report from June 2020 and has now been unlisted on the Amazon News YouTube account, demonstrates how the distance assistant works: green circles surround workers if they maintain six feet of distance. If workers get too close to each other, the circles light up red.

For some Whole Foods employees, there are unionization "heat maps"

Insider reported in April 2020 that after acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon kept track of dozens of factors that indicated pro-union sentiment, including the distance to a union office and the number of human resource complaints at the store in question. The metrics came up with a ranking of the then-510 locations based on the likelihood of the workers at these locations pursuing a union effort.

Insider reported that in a statement on the map, Amazon wrote: "The [Team Member] Relations Heatmap is designed to identify stores at risk of unionization." When asked by Insider about the map, a representative from Amazon said that when Whole Foods workers were surveyed, they said they would rather have a "direct relationship" with managers in lieu of union representation.

For some European warehouse workers, the Pinkerton Spy Agency has gotten involved

Motherboard reported in November 2020 that leaked documents showed that Amazon had worked with the Pinkerton Spy Agency, famous for its anti-union efforts, to spy on warehouse workers across Europe. And in December 2020, Insider reported that operatives from Pinkerton had infiltrated a private strike in Barcelona, drawing up a report on the workers and journalists in attendance. Amazon responded to Insider's reporting on the Barcelona strike, saying "any activity we undertake is fully in line with local laws and conducted with the full knowledge and support of local authorities."

유럽에서의 아마존 창고 직원들은 아마존이 Pinkerton Spy Agency를 고용해서 유럽 전체의 warehouse workers들의 union efforts를 해산 시키게 하는 일을 시킨 적이 있다고 함.

어느새 AI 카메라 기술들이 사람들의 biometric behaviors를 인지하고,

이 카메라 뒤에 앉은 사람들이 이런 데이터를 이용해서 역으로 work culture 와 직원들을 controlling 하는 것이 벌써 이렇게 밝혀지는 것이 참 무서운 현실로 느껴짐.

과연 이대로 기술 발전을 아무렇게나 사용하도록 규제 없이 두는게 맞는걸까?

이것은 새롭게 부상하는 문화인가 vs 우리가 Manage 해야하는 과제일까?

출처:www.businessinsider.com/how-amazon-monitors-employees-ai-cameras-union-surveillance-spy-agency-2021-4