Amazon’s surprise reversal on selling facial recognition software to police this week helped the company earn some goodwill at a time when law enforcement technology is under a microscope.
But some civil rights groups and racial justice activists say the one-year moratorium on Rekognition sales to police is a trivial concession.
“This surveillance technology’s threat to our civil rights and civil liberties will not disappear in a year,” said Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties director of the ACLU of Northern California, in a statement. “Amazon must fully commit to a blanket moratorium on law enforcement use of face recognition until the dangers can be fully addressed, and it must press Congress and legislatures across the country to do the same. They should also commit to stop selling surveillance systems like Ring that fuel the over-policing of communities of color.”
This is a pretty narrow halt – only on police use, and not on any gathering of face data or providing additional access or deletion rights to it.
I mean, it's still a win. But doesn't address a lot of problems. https://t.co/mHGT1NbqiR
— Amie Stepanovich (@astepanovich) June 10, 2020
Amazon’s role as a supplier of technology for police has put the company in a difficult position over the past two weeks as its leaders seek to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos have posted strong messages of support for protesters across the country, but critics were quick to point out Amazon continues to supply technology to police who disproportionately surveil communities of color.
“Face recognition technology gives governments the unprecedented power to spy on us wherever we go,” Ozer said. “It fuels police abuse. This surveillance technology must be stopped.”
The ACLU has been resisting police adoption of facial recognition technology for years amid reports that the software misidentifies women and people of color more frequently than white men. A federal study published in December found Asian and African American people were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men, according to The Washington Post. The report builds on findings from MIT and the ACLU, which Amazon has long disputed.
@ACLU has been campaigning against Amazon's sale of facial rec to the police for YEARS. Me & @jovialjoy audited their tech demonstrating clearly biased performance. They tried to discredit us, deny our results. They even shut down a shareholder vote. https://t.co/3Rd4kTadiZ
— Deb Raji (@rajiinio) June 10, 2020
“It took two years for Amazon to get to this point, but we’re glad the company is finally recognizing the dangers face recognition poses to Black and Brown communities and civil rights more broadly,” Ozer said.
Amazon’s announcement came two days after IBM said it would wind down its facial recognition products in response to the national racial justice movement. The ACLU is urging Microsoft to follow in IBM and Amazon’s footsteps.
Amazon and Microsoft are two leading developers of facial recognition software. Both companies have called for regulation of the technology. Amazon said Wednesday that the one-year ban will give Congress time to take up the issue, which could happen if law enforcement reform legislation moves forward.
Amazon said it would continue to allow organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Marinus Analytics to use Rekognition “to help rescue human trafficking victims and reunite missing children with their families” in the announcement.
