“Why Is Amazon Tracking Opioid Use All Over the United States?”

Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and the Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the Vice story “Why Is Amazon Tracking Opioid Use All Over the United States?” The company’s human resources team has begun “tracking opioid usage among the American public as part of a project which involves monitoring internal and external threats to Amazon’s employees and business.” Monnat, who researches public health and opioid use, says the news is very disturbing. “I asked around to other drug experts I know, and none of them knew this was happening. I am a bit shocked but shouldn’t be. Corporations increasingly have access to a litany of data and know more about us than anyone else,” says Monnat.