Amazon deliveries could soon come with a new catch: the delivery driver’s smart glasses will be snapping photos of anything they see while they’re in use, including people and private property. Bloomberg reports that the glasses could take “several thousand captures in a single driver’s typical shift,” which Amazon plans to upload to its AI Wellspring platform. When asked if customers will be able to opt-out of this, Amazon’s Viraj Chatterjee told Bloomberg, “We haven’t thought about that.”
Chatterjee claimed Amazon’s only using the data from the glasses to “enhance the delivery process,” adding, “The intent has never been stuff like surveillance.” The impact of surveillance tech won’t be new to Amazon’s delivery drivers, who have had AI cameras watching in their vehicles and complained about it failing to register secured seat belts, or forcing them to pull over to take a sip of coffee, or having footage from the cameras leaked online.
Chatterjee also told Bloomberg that Amazon’s systems will blur any people and license plates in the images before they’re passed along for human review. Bloomberg says Amazon confirmed that “images from the smart glasses could be obtained with a warrant,” but wouldn’t specify how long it plans to store the images for. There reportedly won’t be a way for customers to see any images Amazon has of them or their property, or ask Amazon to delete those photos.
The photos from the glasses will reportedly be of a similar quality to the quick pictures delivery drivers snap when they drop off a package. Amazon says it’s planning to put 20,000 more pairs of the glasses in the field by the end of 2027, and drivers wearing them in a pilot program have already made over 275,000 deliveries.