- Leaked documents reveal how a former US press secretary helped
Amazon kill privacy regulations. - Jay Carney's
lobbying division has swelled to more than 250 staff members since 2015.
A trove of leaked internal documents has revealed how a former aide to US President
Documents obtained by Reuters cite Jay Carney, who served as Biden's comms director when he was Vice President and later as press secretary for the Obama White House, as the man spearheading a nationwide lobbying campaign designed to kill off new privacy protections in 25 states.
Internal memos explicitly outline Carney's mission to "change or block US and EU regulation/legislation that would impede growth for Alexa-powered devices," and celebrate his division's successes in neutering new laws to the point that they have "little if any" impact on the company's practices. Reuters reported that Amazon has "killed or undermined" privacy protections in more than 36 bills.
Since being hired by Amazon in 2015, Carney's lobbying unit is said to have swelled, growing from a few dozen employees to more than 250, and is laser-focused on allowing the company to continue harvesting consumer data through its Alexa devices, among other things.
In a leaked 2015 draft memo seen by Reuters, Amazon communications executive Drew Herdener tried to help Carney set the tone for his new aggressive new style, writing that they wanted "policymakers and press to fear us."
The final version of that memo said that "journalists and policymakers don't take for granted the good that Amazon does when they speak publicly about us and make decisions affecting our business or reputation."
Under California law, consumers can ask tech companies what information they hold about them. As part of their investigation, one Reuters reporter learned Amazon had made 90,000 recordings of them and their family since 2017.
Another reporter found that the company had detailed information on their Kindle reading habits, and a profile of their family's "implicit dietary preferences."
The reasons such massive data-gathering exercises continue is in part down to Amazon's powerful lobbying arm, driven by Carney and his team, it was reported.
Reuters describes how Amazon's tenfold increase in political donations in Virginia helped an industry-friendly privacy bill pass locally, and how the company managed to rein in new regulations on voice recordings and biometric in California and Washington, respectively.
In a statement to Reuters, an Amazon spokesperson said: "The premise of this story is flawed and includes reporting that relies on early, incomplete drafts of documents to draw incorrect conclusions."
The spokesperson added that it works to protect consumers' privacy and emphasized that it does not sell any of their data, saying: "We know we must get privacy right in order to meet our customers' high expectations."
Insider approached Amazon for further comment.