France's privacy watchdog, the CNIL, has fined Amazon's French warehouse business ?‚¬32 million ($35 million) for using an "excessively intrusive system" to monitor worker performance and activity. The system in question allowed managers at Amazon France Logistique to closely track employees, resulting in multiple breaches of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Amazon has stated that it strongly disagrees with the CNIL's conclusions and reserves the right to file an appeal. The watchdog's investigation focused on Amazon employees' use of handheld barcode scanners to track packages at various points in the warehouse. The scanners, known as "stow machine guns," allow the company to monitor employees to the "nearest second." However, the CNIL deemed this level of monitoring to be illegal under EU privacy rules, as it requires employees to justify every break or interruption. The watchdog also criticized Amazon for keeping employee data for too long, stating that real-time data and weekly statistics were sufficient. The CNIL's ruling comes after several investigations into Amazon's warehouse practices and complaints from employees. In the United States, Amazon has faced scrutiny for its working conditions, with employees raising concerns about long hours and close surveillance.