Amazon Employee Fired for Sharing Customer Emails with Third-Party Sellers

• Amazon has fired an individual who accepted bribes from third-party sellers in exchange of customer data.
• The individual responsible for this incident has been terminated from their position, and we are supporting law enforcement in their prosecution.
• The e-commerce giant is taking legal action and has restricted data access to its staff.

According to multiple news reports, Amazon has fired at least one employee for accepting bribes and selling customer data. The individual has been terminated from Amazon and is facing legal charges. The customers who were affected by the employee’s actions have been notified by the e-commerce giant, and outside of the sole employee’s actions, no other customer data was leaked out.

Third-party sellers on Amazon used middlemen to get in touch with Amazon employees. The employees were offered monetary reimbursement in exchange for information on customers. The data collected by third-party sellers allowed them to get a competitive edge. These practices are common in China according to the Wall Street Journal, but the investigation by Amazon has extended to the United States as well to ensure such incidents do not happen.

The e-commerce giant has added systems to restrict the amount of data employees have access to and continuously audits customer data. An Amazon Spokesperson told us,“We have strict policies and a Code of Business Conduct & Ethics in place for our employees. We implement sophisticated systems to restrict and audit access to information. We hold our employees to a high ethical standard, and anyone in violation of our Code faces discipline, including termination and potential legal and criminal penalties. In addition, we have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will take swift action against them, including terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, and taking legal action. We are conducting a thorough investigation of these claims.”.

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