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Health Data and Strike Activity in Amazon’s Internal Notes: Privacy Authority Orders Stop Garante Privacy
Following press reports, the Data Protection Authority (Garante) opened an investigation into Amazon, conducting inspection visits at one of its warehouses. The inspections revealed the use of a management platform which, integrated with the attendance tracking system, flagged to managers the need to conduct interviews with workers upon return from absence. Within the platform, in a free-text field, detailed notes were recorded on the outcomes of these interviews. The annotations contained data relating to medical conditions, health status, participation in strikes and trade union activities, as well as information on workers’ family and personal lives. Such data was retained for the entire duration of the employment relationship and for up to ten years after its termination, with access extended to multiple company profiles. During the same inspection, the Authority found cameras positioned near toilets and rest areas, capable of identifying individuals entering those spaces. The Garante concluded that the collection and retention of information not relevant to the assessment of professional aptitude constitutes a breach of the principles of lawfulness, data minimisation, and storage limitation, and is also at odds with the prohibition on inquiries into matters irrelevant to the employment relationship. As an urgent measure, the Authority ordered the permanent restriction of processing with regard to both the annotations in the platform and the cameras installed near areas reserved for workers, with a verification obligation extended to all facilities using the same system.