Amazon is hiring intelligence analysts to watch organized labor, hostile political leaders, more
Close-up of sign with logo on facade of the regional headquarters of ecommerce company Amazon in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale, California, October 28, 2018.
As tech giant Amazon continues to grow and expand into one of the world's largest companies, regulatory pressure and labor issues continue to threaten the company's present and immediate future.
In the face of impending lawsuits for worker conditions, possible workforce unionization, but also monopoly hearings and litigations, Amazon is now hiring personnel to counter these issues.
In new job ads posted on July 22 (Senior Intelligence Analyst / archived) and September 1 (Intelligence Analyst / archived), Amazon is hiring intelligence analysts that will be tasked with keeping an eye on topics considered sensitive to the company's future.
According to the two job ads, Amazon currently considers organized labor, activist groups, hostile political leaders, policymakers, terrorists, and law enforcement as potential threats.
Some of the responsibilities for Amazon's new intelligence analyst hires
The two jobs will require the new hires to compile "intelligence reports" on topics that may harm Amazon and submit the reports to Amazon's legal teams and upper management, who will either take legal action or make informed decisions based on the data gathered by these new hires.
Such "intelligence personnel" are not new in the corporate world; however, such hires are usually managed through private contractors under heavy non-disclosure agreements, and not via public job postings.
The two new job posts, spotted earlier today by Dragos threat analyst Joe Slowik, are a rarity in the tech world, as you don't see companies like Amazon hiring union-busters and private investigators out in the open.
While Amazon might be in its rights to hire intelligence analysts to keep an eye on foreign political leaders and the geopolitical landscape in light of the Bezos Suadi hack, many netizens are now questioning the company's morals for focusing on targeting its own employees and their legal right to unionize, efforts that Amazon has been successfully avoided and knocked down for more than 25 years.
Amazon is looking for a snitch to report on employees who want fair labor practices. https://t.co/rD9AQ8qlgt
— Selena (@selenalarson) September 1, 2020
Union buster but make it fancy https://t.co/BRO3c1zzIL
— Neil (@pleaseneill) September 1, 2020
Literally putting out an ad for a paid union-buster https://t.co/MhuECpyQlV
— Disaster noodle (@b3wilderbeast) September 1, 2020
However, when reached out for comment earlier today, Amazon removed the two job ads and issued the following statement, claiming it is all a misunderstanding.
"The job post was not an accurate description of the role – it was made in error and has since been corrected."
Updated at 15:20 ET with statement from Amazon.