Amazon Is Suspending Police Use Of Its Facial Recognition Tech For One Year
Amazon said in a blog post Wednesday that it would be implementing a one-year suspension on law enforcement use of Rekognition, the company’s facial recognition technology.
The move comes during a national moment of protests against police brutality, which have swept through the country after police killed two unarmed Black people, George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.
Amazon did not immediately respond for comment.
Although activists have demanded that tech companies stop selling facial recognition to police for years, only this week have companies started to act: Two days ago, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna announced that his company would no longer sell or provide facial recognition to law enforcement, and it would halt research on the technology.
Amazon’s Rekognition gained notoriety in 2018 after it falsely matched 28 members of Congress with mugshots, disproportionately matching politicians of color with criminal suspects.
Rekognition is not the only facial recognition technology that Amazon owns. The company owns Ring, which has been developing its own proprietary facial recognition technology since 2016 and once had a “head of facial recognition research.” More than 1,300 police departments have signed contracts with the home surveillance company to let them request footage from camera-owners without warrants.
Amazon said in the blog post that the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as technology companies Thorn and Marinus Analytics, would still have access to Rekognition for human trafficking cases.
It’s unclear how Amazon will enforce the moratorium for police departments that already have access to Rekognition.
The announcement drew skepticism from some activist groups, including Mijente, which tweeted “let’s hold off celebrating just yet.”
Amazon said that it hoped the one-year moratorium would “give Congress enough time to pass appropriate regulation of facial recognition use by police.”
“We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested,” Amazon said in the blog post.
It made no indication of what would happen after the one-year moratorium expired.
Amazon said in a blog post Wednesday that it would be implementing a one-year suspension on law enforcement use of Rekognition, the company’s facial recognition technology. The move comes during a national moment of protests against police brutality, which have swept through the country after police killed two unarmed Black…
Recent Posts
- Surprisingly cheap Pro monitor provides unique features that even Apple Studio display doesn’t — AOC’s new monitors offer KVM capability, a whopping 11 ports and Hollywood-grade Calman software compatibility
- After 16 years, Ecobee is shutting down support for the original smart thermostat
- FDA qualifies Apple Watch’s AFib history for use in clinical studies
- Amazon CEO’s anti-union comments broke federal laws, labor judge rules
- The last thing the iPad needs is a spec bump
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011