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Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

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Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#31

Post by fcuck_actuarial »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #26
fcuck_actuarial wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think M,I,and E (hopefully not C) could also be considered motivations for convincing someone to change jobs? (In my experience, recruiters from a well known FAANG company like to lean HEAVILY on E. Jokes on them, because the right answer is M!)

Coercion and Ego are almost never used because they aren't reliable and are fear based. Money and Ideology are positive incentives, Coercion and Ego are generally painful incentives.

What I had in mind by Ego was "flattery", so in a positive sense. In retrospect, ego without M is an empty, impotent argument.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#32

Post by ChuckMcM »

koolba wrote: post #20
lgats wrote: post #18

https://www.fullwsj.com/articles/amazon-investigates-employe...

That redirect site is priceless.

Although you pay a privacy hit (facebook gets it) this one (https://outline.com/AsPP9t) not so much. And of course Blendle.com for when you are willing to pay to read one article in the WSJ but don't want to subscribe.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#33

Post by nyolfen »

userbinator wrote: post #27
clubm8 wrote: post #14

> The practice, which violates company policy, is particularly pronounced in China, according to some of these people, because the number of sellers there is skyrocketing. As well, Amazon employees in China have relatively small salaries, which emboldens them to take risks. Sounds like Amazon is finding out the hard way that you need to pay for trust , not just skill. When you pay the absolute bare minimum to your em…

Don't forget that China is ultimately a far more collectivist society, and stuff like this happens all the time. The money just provides additional motivation; people's natural tendency is to share things.

i think it's more likely that people generally (anywhere) would feel little natural allegiance or loyalty to a foreign multinational corporation

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#34

Post by reaperducer »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #19
gesman wrote: post #10

That's how Costco survives and prospers in Amazon era. By not exposing customers to shady vendors, misleading metrics and questionable product rankings based on fake reviews.

Yes but Costco only has a specific set of things that I'm looking for, sometimes in too high quantities and at a price point that is not particularly amazing

Yes but Costco only has a specific set of things that I'm looking for

I think, as a society, we're going to have to get away from the notion that buying everything in one place is the ideal.

We distribute computing, diversify investments, and decentralize everything from government offices to manufacturing. I think a certain amount of decentralization in shopping is OK if it means I don't have to deal with Amazon's counterfeit products, fake reviews, and conmen.

If I have to go back to the days of buying my groceries at the grocery store, my hardware at the hardware store, and my computers at the computer store, I'm OK with that.

I travel out of my way to go to a real butcher where I can see the cows going in the back of the building, and the results in the cold case in front. I know the meat hasn't been frozen (coughWhole Foodscough), isn't in storage so long it has to be pumped full of gas to keep its color, and if I want exactly six ounces of something, I watch the guy cut it fresh right in front of my eyes.

He's also an asshole, but I'd rather deal with his attitude than the perils, known and unknown, of a retail experience 100% controlled by an algorithm with no pride or ethics.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#35

Post by wongarsu »

skybrian wrote: post #28
jjeaff wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any reason to have that trust? Absent any evidence, I'm inclined to think that they do very little to protect my data. Had they any stringent controls in place, I feel like their PR or marketing would have communicated some of the specifics publicly.

It's oriented towards Cloud customers, but there is some information here: https://cloud.google.com/security/overview/whitepaper#data_a...

The Data Processing Terms for google cloud also provide some details (mostly appendix 2)

https://cloud.google.com/terms/data-processing-terms

You have to agree to those seperately, they are meant for GDPR compliance. GSuite has an equivalent document you can agree to too.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#36

Post by gist »

clubm8 wrote: post #14

> The practice, which violates company policy, is particularly pronounced in China, according to some of these people, because the number of sellers there is skyrocketing. As well, Amazon employees in China have relatively small salaries, which emboldens them to take risks. Sounds like Amazon is finding out the hard way that you need to pay for trust , not just skill. When you pay the absolute bare minimum to your em…

> There's a reason casino cage cashiers don't make minimum wage despite it being a low skill job, and it's not out of the goodness of their hearts.

Not sure that is even the primary reason.

Could also be:

- Paying more attracts a higher level of employee with a more professional image (which yes matters even if someone is cashing in chips). In other words you are assuming they also don't pay the proverbial janitor a higher salary than they could get away with. After all, all else equal, if you were doing that job wouldn't you rather work in a nice building cleaning up rather than a older building or situation? Even for the same or close to low pay you were able to get elsewhere? And if this is the case why wouldn't employees still be stealing left and right. They aren't.

- Require a higher intelligence level that is more likely in a higher paid worker. That way less likely to be able to con the cashier or take advantage of them.

Also no surprise that people steal at all levels of income and in all situations. It's like when people wonder why some famous and successful person (with money) takes their own life. They say 'wow they have everything'. If that were true and a reason not to kill yourself then you'd expect people with no money to be taking their own lives left and right. And obviously that is not happening.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#37

Post by _ptgt »

userbinator wrote: post #27
clubm8 wrote: post #14

> The practice, which violates company policy, is particularly pronounced in China, according to some of these people, because the number of sellers there is skyrocketing. As well, Amazon employees in China have relatively small salaries, which emboldens them to take risks. Sounds like Amazon is finding out the hard way that you need to pay for trust , not just skill. When you pay the absolute bare minimum to your em…

Don't forget that China is ultimately a far more collectivist society, and stuff like this happens all the time. The money just provides additional motivation; people's natural tendency is to share things.

Eh, how do you define collectivist? Ever tried to get on a Chinese subway or stand in a Chinese queue? I'm not sure you can compare e g. US and Chinese collectivism unidimensionally.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#38

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

fcuck_actuarial wrote: post #31
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coercion and Ego are almost never used because they aren't reliable and are fear based. Money and Ideology are positive incentives, Coercion and Ego are generally painful incentives.

What I had in mind by Ego was "flattery", so in a positive sense. In retrospect, ego without M is an empty, impotent argument.

Or ego in the form of bait and switch offers of getting to have leadership responsibility or opportunity to heavily influence decision making about technical choices.

Hype a position up like someone has creative autonomy to lead, because it strokes their ego, then later just shrug.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#39

Post by wongarsu »

akudha wrote: post #16
mc32 wrote: post #5

This principally is for Amazon China and not the US where despite years of complaints Amazon has done little to visibly counter the same effects and issues. To wit: "In exchange for payments ranging from roughly $80 to more than $2,000, brokers for Amazon employees in Shenzhen are offering internal sales metrics and reviewers’ email addresses, as well as a service to delete negative reviews and restore banned Amazon…

They will probably come down hard on someone selling sales metrics etc (assuming it is happening in the US), but probably leave the fake reviews etc alone. It is just business - anything that isn't a big enough problem (yet) for their bottom line, why would they care to change it? On the other hand, selling sales metrics etc is serious (Amazon almost never releases raw numbers, for example, sales of Kindle readers) e…

If the customers lose trust in the review system that is a big hit. Maybe Amazon thinks they are entrenched enough that it doesn't matter though.

Re: Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes

#40

Post by Kalium »

reaperducer wrote: post #34
anoncoward111 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but Costco only has a specific set of things that I'm looking for, sometimes in too high quantities and at a price point that is not particularly amazing

Yes but Costco only has a specific set of things that I'm looking for I think, as a society, we're going to have to get away from the notion that buying everything in one place is the ideal. We distribute computing, diversify investments, and decentralize everything from government offices to manufacturing. I think a certain amount of decentralization in shopping is OK if it means I don't have to deal with Amazon's c…

Is it perhaps possible that your priorities might not find a reflection in all hearts?

Many people do not regard the time, energy, and resources that go into the logistics of managing many vendors to be good investments for them. This can be compared to distributed computing, somewhat distributed manufacturing, distributed government, and diversified financial portfolios. Each of the items you so correctly, wisely, and rightly point to comes with significant cost efficiencies and significant energy in reducing any inefficiencies introduced.

I know a great many people who appreciate very high-quality meat of the sort you describe. The number who are willing to invest significantly into the personal logistics required to obtain it could potentially be a somewhat smaller number. To say nothing of the price premium generally demanded by such a specialist, or the impact this might have on household budgets with limited flexibility.

It's worth thinking about why department stores might have became popular, long ago, displacing a series of highly specialized expert vendors. It's perhaps even possible that an analogy of a distributed computer system might lead a lesser intellect than yours astray.

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