Amazon employee sacked for sharing customers’ email addresses with a third-party vendor

• Following the incident, Amazon blocked the third-party seller in question from selling or accessing the firm’s website.
• Employees were reportedly found illegally providing sensitive data in exchange for $80 to $2,000.

On October 5, Amazon reportedly dismissed an employee for violating the company’s rules. The employee was reportedly reveling customers’ email addresses to a third-party seller.

Following the incident, Amazon immediately blocked the third-party seller in question from selling any item or accessing the firm’s website, ZDNet reported. The firm said that no other details, apart from email addresses, had been disclosed. The firm was also aided by law enforcement agencies to resolve the matter.

Corporate data sales rampant in China

Amazon’s announcement comes after the company acknowledged in September 2018, that it was investigating insider trading scheme rumors. Amazon found that several of its employees were illegally providing sensitive data of customers to third parties, in exchange for bribes ranging from $80 to over $2,000.

This kind of illegal trading has primarily been fairly common in China and is now being seen more often the US, MarketWatch reported. Apart from sharing confidential data, corporate employees also reportedly help the third-party sellers to boost their product sales by deleting negative reviews.

“We hold our employees to a high ethical standard and anyone in violation of our Code faces discipline, including termination and potential legal and criminal penalties,” an Amazon spokesperson said, MarketWatch reported.

The company also clarified that no seller will be spared, if found guilty.

"We have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will take swift action against them, including terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, and taking legal action," an Amazon spokeswoman told ZDNet last month.