Amazon.com, Inc. (Tech Focus) — Ethics Grade D+

Amazon.com, Inc. (Tech Focus) receives an overall ethics grade of D+ (38/100) on CancelCo's corporate accountability database. Sector: Technology. Market cap: Large Cap.

Category scores

• labor: 20
• privacy: 25
• consumer: 35
• environment: 55
• humanRights: 30

Documented incidents (3)

• Surveillance State Partnerships (high, 2021) — Amazon's Ring doorbell subsidiary partnered with over 2,000 police departments, allowing law enforcement to request footage from users without warrants, creating a private surveillance network.
• Rekognition Software Bias (medium, 2019) — Studies showed Amazon’s facial recognition technology, sold to law enforcement, had significant racial and gender bias, frequently misidentifying people of color and women.
• Deceptive Prime Cancellation (medium, 2023) — The FTC sued Amazon for using 'dark patterns'—deceptive user interface designs—to trick millions of consumers into enrolling in auto-renewing Prime subscriptions and making it difficult to cancel.

Documented good deeds

• The Climate Pledge — Co-founded initiative to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Ethical alternatives

• DuckDuckGo — Tech alternative that does not track users or build advertising profiles.