---
title: "Amazon Is Forcing Its Delivery Drivers to Take Selfies"
description: "Amazon recently unveiled a new requirement for contractors who deliver its packages: taking selfies now and then to verify their identity."
date: "2019-04-23"
modified: "2019-04-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-forcing-delivery-drivers-selfies"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "Amazon"
  - "facial recognition"
  - "the digest"
---

# Amazon Is Forcing Its Delivery Drivers to Take Selfies

![Amazon recently unveiled a new requirement for contractors who deliver its packages: taking selfies now and then to verify their identity.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/amazon-forcing-delivery-drivers-selfies1.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Service With a Smile

Amazon's delivery drivers now have to prove they aren't package thieves by stopping to take a selfie every now and then.

The idea is to verify deliveries with Amazon's facial recognition, [according to *Business Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-demands-selfies-from-delivery-drivers-2019-4>). It also means that the contractors who deliver Amazon boxes are now forced to pose for a camera to periodically "confirm their identity" if they want to get paid — a troubling portent of the future of gig labor.

## Rise and Grind

The program is similar to Uber's requirement that drivers submit selfies to verify their identities, instituted after news broke that several hadn't [had background checks](<https://www.cnet.com/news/uber-lyft-reportedly-skimp-on-background-checks/>).

Amazon's facial recognition system is expected prevent would-be package thieves from signing up on Flex — the company's delivery contract service — to steal boxes off of people's front steps, [according to *The Verge*](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/19/18507789/amazon-delivery-drivers-selfies-facial-recognition-fraud-protection-flex-app>).

In theory, the new requirements could prevent people from piggybacking onto an existing Flex account, or it could hold people accountable so that the company knows who delivered a package that went missing. Or it could result in clever thieves taking pictures of printed-out pictures of other people before they steal a package anyway.

**READ MORE:** [Amazon is now making its delivery drivers take selfies](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/19/18507789/amazon-delivery-drivers-selfies-facial-recognition-fraud-protection-flex-app>) \[*The Verge*\]

**More on Amazon's facial recognition:** *Amazon’s Facial Recognition Struggles With Darker Skin*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

## More

- [The Digest: Amazon Needs More Delivery Companies and Wants You to Start Them](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-delivery-service.md>)
- [Amazon Is Writing Its Own Facial Recognition Bills](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-facial-recognition-bills.md>)
- [A New Amazon Camera Patent Is Straight Out of “1984”](<https://futurism.com/new-amazon-patent-1984.md>)
- [Amazon Takes Photographic Proof of Delivery. What Could Go Wrong?](<https://futurism.com/amazon-takes-photographic-proof-delivery.md>)
- [Protesters Interrupt Amazon Event to Decry Its Work With ICE](<https://futurism.com/protesters-amazon-ice.md>)
- [Cops Are Using Amazon’s Facial Recognition Software Wrong](<https://futurism.com/cops-amazon-facial-recognition.md>)
- [Amazon Reveals Smart Glasses That Effectively Turn Its Delivery Drivers Into Cyborg Drones](<https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/amazon-reveals-smart-glasses-delivery-drivers.md>)
- [Amazon Rekognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress to Mugshots](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-rekognition-falsely-matched-congresspeople.md>)