Amazon Sacks Employee Over Data Violation

Amazon has sent emails to a number of users confirming that one of their employees has leaked user information to an unnamed third party. Some employees of Amazon’s smart doorbell product department used their account permissions to access video surveillance data of some users.

Amazon fired employees after they discovered that they had abused their rights to access data and it seems that Amazon has more problems with user privacy.

A number of Tweets are reported to have appeared over the last few days from Amazon customers saying that they have been the victim of a data breach will rightfully be a worry to consumers.

Finding out than an Amazon employee has been passing customer emails to an, a third party is particularly concerning, especially as Amazon appears to have been vague about the details. It experienced another incident in 2018 when it fired an employee who had disclosed customer email addresses to a seller.  The online retail giant has confirmed that they are working directly with the authorities and that the employee in question has been fired, although no further information about  the impact on consumers has been released.

It is possible that some Amazon users will now find themselves falling victim to phishing attacks, to prevent this Amazon need to be upfront about exactly who these emails have been shared with. 

During a recent antitrust hearing earlier this year Amazon, and its CEO Jeff Bezos, came under fire by lawmakers over the company’s alleged use of third-party seller data in developing its own products. Earlier in 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon employees have accessed sales data from independent sellers on its marketplace to help the company develop competing products for its private-label. Amazon has a policy barring the practice, but some US lawmakers have focused in on the company’s enforcement of that policy.

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