EU lawmakers want Jeff Bezos to tell if Amazon spies on them

Brussels, Oct 8 (IANS): A group of lawmakers in the European Union has written to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding answers from him on whether the company monitors the activities of politicians and trade union activists.

The open letter initiated by French politician Leila Chaibi and signed by 36 other members of the European Parliament comes days after Amazon deleted two job postings for “intelligence analysis” which unions saw as ‘threats’.

The letter, dated October 6, said that the EU lawmakers were worried about this approach of “monitoring threats”.

After Amazon deleted the two job posts, trade unions last week demanded investigation by the European Commission into the legality of monitoring workers by the online retailer.

The job postings also mentioned the monitoring of “hostile political leaders”.

“We wonder about your intentions with great concern: does Amazon’s monitoring intentionally target trade unionists, Amazon workers, as well as political representatives (including ourselves) who could possibly express criticism of its activities?” the lawmakers asked.

“We are concerned about whether European trade unions, as well as local, national or European elected representatives, are affected by this approach to “threat monitoring”, which aims to repress collective action and trade union organising,” the letter reads.

Amazon, however, said that it does not want its workers to “spy” on third-party groups.

An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC that “the job post was not an accurate description of the role — it was made in error and has since been corrected.”