Amazon Web Services debuted a new office space in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in 2022, but there's one unusual thing about it that's gained traction on social media this week: it's inside a former prison.1
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The use of a panopticon-style building is also notable because Amazon has been criticized for perpetuating surveillance through its Ring home-security cameras and its constant data collection on other products, such as those with Alexa functionality. Earlier this year, Amazon had to pay $30 million in two separate suits, in which the Federal Trade Commission charged the company with privacy violations. Court documents from one of those suits revealed several unreported incidents of Ring workers spying on customers.
Cupola XS, which manages the new office spaces in de Koepel, also hosts banking and investment companies, including Rabobank, ROM InWest, and BCNL, which is also known as Blockchain Netherlands. Other parts of the former prison include spaces for guided tours, study spaces for students, and a café.
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- 1. Prison de Koepel, or "The Haarlem Dome Prison," opened in 1901 and closed in 2016. Following its closure, the city of Haarlem briefly used de Koepel as a shelter space for Syrian migrants seeking asylum. Amazon uses space on the third floor of de Koepel, where prison cells have been converted into office spaces and communal desks are available. On Thursday, an Amazon employee posted a tour of the space to TikTok, and one X user, @jelleprins, reposted it to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday.
