Amazon Helped Create the Invasion of Privacy Jeff Bezos Now Protests

Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos launched a tirade against the invasion of his privacy, last week, after the National Enquirer reportedly obtained private images of the billionaire. Bezos’ company Amazon, however, helped create the culture of invasion of privacy he now protests.

In a blog post, Thursday, Bezos’ claimed he was being blackmailed by the National Enquirer, and insinuated that both President Trump and Saudi Arabia were responsible.

“If Bezos were the political victim of surveillance state abuses, it would be scandalous and dangerous. It would also be deeply ironic,” declared the Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald on Friday. “That’s because Amazon, the company that has made Bezos the planet’s richest human being, is a critical partner for the U.S. Government in building an ever-more invasive, militarized and sprawling surveillance state.”

“Indeed, one of the largest components of Amazon’s business, and thus one of the most important sources of Bezos’ vast wealth and power, is working with the Pentagon and the NSA to empower the U.S. Government with more potent and more sophisticated weapons, including surveillance weapons,” Greenwald proclaimed, noting Amazon’s development of facial recognition software for governments.

The facial recognition software, known as Rekognition, has been shopped to various government agencies, despite it mistakenly identifying criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted List as famous celebrities, and misidentifying 28 members of Congress as police suspects.

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