Amazon Prioritizes Equal Pay, Fraud Prevention And Data Privacy

Online retail giant Amazon says it will launch into new markets amid an uncertain sea of controversies and regulations, CNBC reported on Friday (Oct. 13).

Amazon outlined its opinion on touchy subjects and said in a blog post last week, “there is much room for healthy debate and differing opinions.” Minimum wage, climate change, workplace diversity, immigration, and more were among the topics outlined.

The blog post didn’t touch on antitrust issues. Instead, Amazon mentioned its facial recognition technology — Rekognition — and how it has been useful in identifying and locating missing children. Aside from the positive aspects of the technology, the company said it thinks facial recognition technology can be exploited and should be “under a regulatory framework.”

Amazon has been criticized for selling Rekognition to police and other law enforcement professionals. Privacy advocates are worried the technology could lead to the false arrest of innocent people who just happen to look like the video snapshot.

Regarding emerging technology, Amazon’s policy statement says governments “should work quickly to put in place a regulatory framework for facial recognition technology.”

The tech giant also said it wants enhanced laws to incriminate counterfeiters and pointed to a $400 million-plus expenditure that led to success in reducing fraudulent goods on its website.

The eCommerce behemoth has struggled with preventing counterfeit goods from infiltrating its marketplace even though it made money from those fraudulent sales, The Wall Street Journal said.

“Last year alone, our proactive efforts prevented more than 1 million suspected bad actors from opening Amazon seller accounts and blocked more than 3 billion suspected bad listings,” Amazon wrote in the blog post.

In the company’s ongoing efforts to prevent fraud on its site, Amazon announced a new program earlier this month to help sellers make sure their products won’t be copied or counterfeited.

Dubbed the Intellectual Property Accelerator, it helps small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) connect with law firms that deal with intellectual property (IP) and trademarks. Participating sellers will get discounts from the firms when they file for trademarks.