Goodreads, owned by Amazon, built its reputation as the go-to social network for book lovers. Behind the friendly reviews and reading lists is a data-harvesting machine that feeds Amazon’s dominance in book sales and publishing. Every rating, review, and interaction strengthens the same monopoly that undercuts independent bookstores, exploits warehouse workers, and profits from surveillance tech and military contracts.
Amazon is rated High Impact because its harms are systemic and interlocking.
Environmental Harm: Delivery fleets, aviation cargo, and data centers generate massive emissions and plastic waste, while public pledges mask lobbying against climate regulation.
Human Rights Violations: Workers face surveillance, injury-level quotas, and unsafe delivery speeds. Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere face wage theft and coercion.
Military & Conflict Complicity: AWS is central to surveillance states. Project Nimbus embeds Amazon in Israel’s occupation and war crimes, supplying AI and data services to its military and government.
The result: consumer spending that powers a machine which entrenches inequality, accelerates climate collapse, and sustains state violence worldwide.
Looking for an alternative that’s independent and ethical? → Go with The StoryGraph. Independent, Black woman–owned, ad-free, and built for thoughtful book discovery without corporate data mining.