New Reports Highlight Globalization of Surveillance Tech Industry
Posted by John Chan | Feb 19, 2021
A new report from The Intercept’s Mara Hvistendahl uncovers how U.S. software giant Oracle worked with Chinese law enforcement to supply analytics software for China’s burgeoning surveillance state. At the same time, other reports have revealed how Chinese manufacturers of surveillance equipment are widely supplying governments and companies in the West. Although the international connections of surveillance tech companies are not new, the new revelations underscore how an industry built around mass surveillance has become increasingly normalized and global, despite deeply concerning questions about their ethical practices.
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Good morning. I’m Rachel Schnalzer, the L.A. Times Business section’s audience engagement editor. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many of the ways small businesses interact with customers people are spending less time browsing in stores, for example, while a decrease in foot traffic has made a dent in walk-ins at salons and restaurants.
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But while traditional in-person opportunities for customer interaction decreased over the last year, the internet has enabled small businesses to bridge the gap by pivoting to e-commerce.
Federal Trade Commission Orders Amazon to Pay Drivers $61 Million in Stolen Pay
An Amazon delivery driver pushes a cart of groceries to load into a vehicle outside a distribution facility on February 2, 2021, in Redondo Beach, California.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
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On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it will be fining Amazon $61.7 million for using drivers’ tips to pay their salary for over two and a half years.
“Today, the FTC is sanctioning Amazon.com for expanding its business empire by cheating its workers,” said FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra in a statement. “The Commission’s complaint charges that the company secretly began cutting its payments to drivers, and siphoning their tips to make up the difference. In total, Amazon stole nearly one-third of drivers’ tips to pad its own bottom line.” The FTC has ordered that the $61.7 million go back to the workers who were shorted pay.
TODAY
February 2, 2021
Amazon will pay $61.7 million to Flex drivers to settle allegations of stolen tips, after an extensive investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission. The figure represents the total amount of allegedly withheld tips over the two-and-a-half years that Amazon Flex’s controversial base pay system was in place.
The practice of using tips to pay drivers base salaries generated significant outcry when it was revealed by The Los Angeles Times’s Johana Bhuiyan in February 2019. Amazon initially defended the practice, saying drivers still received 100 percent of the tips sent by customers, even in instances when those tips displaced base pay that would otherwise have been provided by Amazon.