Amazon Class Action That Alleges The Company Snooped on Couriers’ Private Facebook Groups Put on Pause

Amazon Wiretapping Flex Drivers Class Action Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: Amazon Flex drivers are suing the tech giant.
• Why: The drivers allege that Amazon snoops on private Facebook groups to gather intelligence on potential collective bargaining efforts. The case has been put on hold while Amazon fights to have it arbitrated out of court.
• Where: The case is pending in California federal court.

A class action lawsuit filed by Amazon Flex drivers alleging the tech giant illegally snoops on private Facebook groups has been put on hold.

A California federal judge filed an order Nov. 30 allowing Amazon to stay the proposed class action while it appeals the denial of its bid to have the case heard out of court in arbitration.

In the order, U.S. District Judge William Q. Hayes said that while the stay pending appeal will cause a delay in the case, the potential harm to Amazon if it had to litigate when it could arbitrate outweighs any harm caused by that delay.

The class action lawsuit was initially filed by Amazon couriers in December 2020, alleging Amazon “wiretaps” the drivers private Facebook groups to gather intelligence on potential collective bargaining efforts. 

Flex Drivers Say They Thought Their Social Media Posts Were Confidential

Amazon contracts with more than 800 delivery partners to get its billions of dollars of volume delivered, according to the complaint, and has formed an entire division to keep tabs on what the drivers are posting online. 

The contracted couriers are known as Flex drivers. Drickey Jackson, the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, has worked as an Amazon Flex driver and says he joined a related Facebook group in 2016 as a way to communicate with other drivers. 

These Facebook groups included posts sharing grievances, including reported feelings of not having job security and minimal benefits.  

Jackson says in the years since he joined, he personally posted messages about missing payments, problems with routes, getting no breaks and making deliveries after a shift was supposed to end. He thought his posts were confidential. 

However, Amazon has teams snooping on these Facebook groups in an effort to monitor planned strikes and unionizing efforts, moves the company has been resistant to, Jackson says. 

These teams not only monitor social media channels themselves, but also deploy automated tools and software to keep track of what’s being talked about, Jackson alleges. 

Formally, the class action lawsuit is accusing Amazon of violating California’s privacy laws and intrusion upon seclusion. 

Are you an Amazon Flex driver? Do you think Amazon Flex drivers are entitled to confidentiality in closed Facebook groups? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Counsel representing the plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit are L. Timothy Fisher and Neal J. Deckant of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Amazon Flex Drivers Class Action Lawsuit is Drickey Jackson, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 3:20-cv-02365-BEN-BGS, in the U.S. District Court for the  Southern District of California.

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