France fines Amazon $35 mn for ‘excessively intrusive’ monitoring of staff

France’s privacy watchdog said on Tuesday that it slapped Amazon’s French warehouse business with a 32 million euro fine (USD 35 million) for using an excessively intrusive sytem to monitor worker performance and activity.

The French Data Protection Authority, also known by its acronym CNIL, said the system allowed managers at Amazon France Logistique to track employees so closely that it resulted in multiple breaches of the European Union’s stringent privacy rules, called the General Data Protection Regulation.

We strongly disagree with the CNIL’s conclusions, which are factually incorrect, and we reserve the right to file an appeal,” Amazon said.