Amazon’s employees might be selling customer data

A potential data leak by Amazon’s employees is being investigated by the company. A report from the Wall Street Journal has alleged that the ecommerce giant’s employees have been offering up customer data to third-party sellers.

Amazon is investigating the claims of malpractice, which is said to be a particularly prominent phenomenon in China. As for the misdemeanours themselves, employees are reported to have been accepting in the region of £60 to £1,530 in return for sharing internal sales metrics, reviewers’ email addresses and the capacity to delete negative reviews.

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The reported setup is largely concentrated in Shenzhen, southeastern China, and emanates in particular from brokers for Amazon employees. As for the potential scope of the problem, it’s ostensibly boundless; Amazon employs some 560,000 people worldwide. While it’s not likely the problem is as pervasive as half a million employees, it could well extend beyond its Shenzhen nucleus. The WSJ report details that the malpractice extends to Amazon employees in the US.

Amazon employees are reportedly being tracked down via social media sites like WeChat, with middlemen offering financial rewards for company information and the deletion of negative reviews.

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Speaking to Sky News, Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company is conducting a “thorough investigation” into allegations. The company has vowed to take legal action if news of malpractice is confirmed.

“We have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behaviour, we will take swift action against them, including terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, and taking legal action,” the firm asserted.

We will be updating this story as and when new details regarding the potential Amazon data leak take place.