As Bezos Demands Privacy, Amazon Enables the Surveillance State

The Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald wrote a searing column on Friday documenting Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ extensive relationship with intelligence agencies and the deep state.

The reminder of Bezos’ corporate partnership with controversial government entities such as the CIA and NSA couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, as the Amazon founder has attracted attention for lashing out at what he calls an attempt by the National Enquirer to invade his privacy.

Bezos alleges he’s the victim of attempted blackmail on behalf of the Enquirer, which supposedly threatened to release his personal lewd photos if he didn’t shut down a potential lawsuit aimed at stopping the company’s embarrassing press coverage of the billionaire oligarch.

The multibillionaire is said to believe that a governmental agency leaked his personal photos to the Enquirer, which included embarrassing love poems and selfies to a mistress.

Greenwald’s article on Amazon’s partnership with mass surveillance entities show that Bezos has simply no right whatsoever to object to the exposure of his own digital data. Amazon has enabled surveillance structures to spy on the personal digital content of hundreds of millions of people, almost none of whom are multibillionaire oligarchs like its company founder.

The company partnered with the CIA to create a $600 million cloud computing network. It’s likely that the network will be utilized by all 17 federal intelligence agencies, doubtlessly to the effect of monitoring the private communications of American citizens.

The company has developed unprecedented facial recognition software, and shown itself more than willing to place it in the hands of government.

Speculation about Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ digital assistant has circulated widely, and it’s been revealed that the company’s patent for the device is able to ascertain the identity of its users and other sensitive information. It’s not impossible that Alexa could provide this information to uninvited third parties, governmental or otherwise.

In an ideal world, no one would have their dick pictures (that were by all indications consensually exchanged between lovers)leaked to media organizations or intelligence agencies. Bezos, however, has significantly aided the facilitation of systems that make that prospect impossible.

So no, the multibillionaire oligarch doesn’t deserve a single tear from privacy and fourth amendment advocates.

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