France’s data protection authority, the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), has fined Amazon France Logistique €32 million for implementing an “excessively intrusive” system to monitor the performance and activity of its warehouse employees. The ruling, announced this week, concludes an investigation into the company’s use of data collected from scanners used by workers to process packages.
The CNIL found that Amazon’s system violated multiple principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulator determined that the micro-level tracking of employee productivity was illegal. The scanners recorded the time elapsed between scans down to the second, flagging periods of inactivity as short as ten minutes. This created a system where employees were under constant pressure to justify any break, potentially discouraging them from pausing work or speaking with colleagues.
Furthermore, the CNIL criticized Amazon for its data retention policies, noting that the company kept detailed performance data for all employees for 31 days, which the regulator deemed a disproportionate length of time. The fine targets three specific GDPR breaches: the surveillance of activity and performance, which lacked a sufficient legal basis; inadequate information provided to employees and external visitors about the data processing; and insufficient security for the video surveillance system.
In its defense, Amazon argued that the monitoring systems were necessary for safety, quality control, and managing the complex logistics of its large-scale fulfillment centers. The company stated it “strongly disagrees” with the CNIL’s conclusions and reserves the right to appeal the decision. This case highlights the growing tension between workplace efficiency technologies and employee privacy rights under Europe’s stringent data protection laws, setting a significant precedent for how companies can legally deploy performance-monitoring tools.
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