An insider aware of Amazon’s order system told Bloomberg that fixing the issue that allowed the effort only required altering a “few lines of code.” It could create a “dead zone” around places like Whole Foods to prevent gaming attempts. Your orders could take longer to arrive, but it would also ensure a fairer distribution of work.
The company hasn’t confirmed the move, instead saying that waiting in the parking lot or using store WiFi was “not an effective way” to claim delivery orders.
It’s still not clear exactly who’s behind the tree-based plot. However, it does underscore issues with the gig economy. Workers’ livelihoods depend heavily on the code that assigns their gigs, and that can give some people a strong incentive to exploit the code.