‘Orwellian’: Lawsuit Says Amazon ‘Wiretapping’ Flex Drivers’ Private Facebook Groups to Track Union Efforts, Labor Strife [UPDATE]

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A proposed class action alleges Amazon.com has unlawfully wiretapped the communications of closed Facebook groups for Amazon Flex drivers as a means to ”secretly observe and monitor” the workers’ confidential postings. 

The 16-page lawsuit alleges Amazon.com, Inc. has violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) by utilizing an array of “monitoring tools, automated software, and dedicated employees” with backgrounds in signals and communications intelligence to gather information on planned strikes or protests, unionization efforts, pay and benefits, deliveries, warehouse and driving conditions and whether workers had been approached by third parties examining Amazon’s workforce. 

“Amazon conducted this monitoring by hiring employees and investigators with backgrounds in intelligence, particularly signals intelligence (‘SIGINT’) and communications intelligence (‘COMINT’), who deployed automated tools and monitoring software as part of their SIGINT and COMINT duties on behalf of Amazon,” according to the complaint.

The plaintiff, a San Diego-based Amazon Flex driver, claims he was unaware his communications in the closed Facebook groups, which touched on topics ranging from missing payments to driving routes to a lack of breaks to labor disputes, were being intercepted in real-time and disclosed to the defendant. 

Amazon Flex is a program whereby the defendant pays regular people to deliver packages with their own vehicles. The lawsuit says, however, that those working within the Flex program have voiced complaints about myriad issues related to their employment, including the lack of job security, benefits and low pay. 

In order to discuss these issues with other Flex workers, many drivers have formed or joined private Facebook groups, the idea of which being the groups’ members consist only of Flex drivers and “certainly not employees or personnel of Defendant,” the complaint says. According to the lawsuit, Amazon, unbeknownst to Flex drivers, has been “secretly monitoring and wiretapping these closed Facebook groups,” an effort apparently evidenced by an internal “social media monitoring document” that, per the case, lists 43 closed Facebook groups and pages run by Flex drivers in different cities nationwide. 

“The document reads that ‘[t]he following social forums mentioned in the table are to be monitored during the Social media process,’” the suit states. 

According to the lawsuit, Amazon confirmed that this document came from “a sophisticated and secret program” that keeps tabs on “dozens” of private Facebook groups created by workers. Per the case, Amazon later confirmed that its Facebook-watching practices are part of what it calls its “Advocacy Operations Social Listening Team,” an initiative the suit describes as “Orwellian” in scope. 

Posts to Flex drivers’ private Facebook groups are monitored or intercepted in real time, and issues raised by workers are compiled and delivered to Amazon’s Corporate Department, the lawsuit says. From there, the reports are filtered and categorized through a “Social Media Bank” tool, according to the suit.

Amazon has seemingly done its best to keep its social media monitoring efforts under lock and key by stressing on the login page for its Social Media Bank that sharing any information therein “will have a detrimental effect if it falls within the reach of any of our Delivery partners,” the complaint says. As the lawsuit tells it, Amazon’s use of a live tool and Social Media Bank as mechanisms by which to collect California Flex drivers’ communications constitutes an invasion of privacy under the California Invasion of Privacy Act. 

“These processes, as currently employed by Amazon, function as a wiretap,” the plaintiff contends.

The lawsuit looks to represent all Amazon Flex drivers in California who were members of the closed Facebook groups and whose electronic communications were intercepted by the defendant.

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