Why Is Amazon Watching Us?

"What kind of company is Amazon? It's a question with a lot of reasonable answers: It's a peerless e-commerce giant; it's a massive shipping and logistics operation; it's a devices and digital-services company that sells millions of gadgets; it's a cloud provider so widely used that a regional outage can take out a good chunk of the entire internet. With the help of Whole Foods, it's become a credible competitor in groceries, and with Prime Video, a major streamer and producer of TV and movies."

"This week, following smartglasses and headset updates from Meta and Apple, Amazon previewed a new pair of glasses that it says will add to its "system of technology to support [delivery] drivers." The pitch: Designed specifically for [Delivery Associates], these glasses help them scan packages, follow turn-by-turn walking directions, and capture proof of delivery-all without the use of their phone. The glasses create a hands-free experience, reducing the need to look between the phone, the package, and the surrounding area."

"The company emphasizes potential safety benefits for delivery workers, whose jobs are already substantially dictated (and tracked by) mobile apps with a lot of the same functionality. Amazon also says it's "leveraging the latest advancements in AI to create an end-to-end system" that runs from "inside our delivery stations, to over the road, to the last hundred yards to a customer's doorstep.""

Amazon operates across e-commerce, shipping and logistics, devices and digital services, cloud computing, groceries, and streaming. The company has built extensive surveillance capabilities tied to its delivery operations, previewing glasses for delivery associates that scan packages, provide turn-by-turn walking directions, and capture proof of delivery without phones. Amazon presents the glasses as enhancing safety and hands-free workflows while leveraging AI to create an end-to-end system spanning delivery stations to customer doorsteps. The company envisions future versions detecting hazards or alerting drivers about misdelivered packages. Delivery worker apps already dictate and track many aspects of the job.

Read at Intelligencer