Amazon response concerning 2023 AGM shareholder proposals
...The referenced shareholder proposals did not pass with a majority of the vote at this year's shareholder meeting, and those that were resubmitted secured lower votes in favor than last year. See Amazon’s Notice of 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders & Proxy Statement (24 May 2023) for full responses to the referenced shareholder proposals...
Surveillance technology violating privacy rights
• Amazon is committed to the responsible use of our artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) products and services and other AWS services. We have been consistent and proactive in our efforts to address concerns and mitigate the risk of misuse through policy and advocacy efforts, customer contractual requirements and training, consultation with third party experts, and other policies and practices.
• For example, Credo AI, a company that specializes in responsible AI, performed a third-party evaluation, which supports that Rekognition performs well across demographic attributes. In 2020, we implemented a global moratorium on police use of Amazon Rekognition’s facial comparison feature for criminal investigations. As part of an ongoing commitment to improving its products and services by soliciting feedback from community stakeholders and independent experts, Ring completed a civil rights and civil liberties audit with the Policing Project at New York University School of Law in 2021, during the course of which Ring implemented over one hundred changes to its products, policies, and legal processes. Ring continues to engage with community stakeholders and independent experts like the Center for Democracy and Technology...
Transparency on content governance for the Amazon.com e-commerce platform
• We publish reports on our handling of controversial products and content, law enforcement requests, and CSAM, as well as a separate transparency report for the streaming site Twitch.
• If we determine a product or content violates the law or our policies, we remove it immediately and may take other appropriate action, such as suspending or banning a seller’s account...
Warehouse workers rights
• We have disclosed our recordable incident rate (RIR) and lost time incident rate (LTIR) data. Between 2019 and 2022, we saw our worldwide RIR improve by almost 24% and our LTIR improve by 53%...
Union rights
• We respect and support the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining recognized by the United Nations and International Labor Organization...
Gender and racial pay
• In 2022, at Amazon, women globally and in the United States earned 99.6 cents and 99.5 cents, respectively, for every dollar that men earned performing the same jobs. In 2022, racial/ethnic minorities in the United States earned 99.5 cents for every dollar that white employees earned performing the same jobs...
Animal welfare standards
• Whole Foods Market was ranked first and received an A+ grade in the Humane Society’s Food Industry Scorecard and has received continued recognition for responsible sourcing and animal welfare from other trusted and reputable non-governmental organizations, including Mercy for Animals and Compassion in World Farming...
