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Amazon Teams Up With Law Enforcement to Deploy Dangerous New Face Recognition Technology
HerebyDemandHat Retweeted: https://twitter.com/Popehat
BREAKING: The ACLU has obtained records showing Amazon helping governments deploy a dangerous new facial recognition system that can track people in real time against huge databases. Our investigation:
Link to tweet
Amazon Teams Up With Law Enforcement to Deploy Dangerous New Face Recognition Technology
May 22, 2018
By: Matt Cagle follow @Matt_Cagle and Nicole A. Ozer follow @NicoleOzer
Amazon, which got its start selling books and still bills itself as "Earth's most customer-centric company," has officially entered the surveillance business. ... The company has developed a powerful and dangerous new facial recognition system and is actively helping governments deploy it. Amazon calls the service "Rekognition."
Marketing materials and documents obtained by ACLU affiliates in three states reveal a product that can be readily used to violate civil liberties and civil rights. Powered by artificial intelligence, Rekognition can identify, track, and analyze people in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image. It can quickly scan information it collects against databases featuring tens of millions of faces, according to Amazon.
Amazon is marketing Rekognition for government surveillance. According to its marketing materials, it views deployment by law enforcement agencies as a "common use case" for this technology. Among other features, the company's materials describe "person tracking" as an "easy and accurate" way to investigate and monitor people. Amazon says Rekognition can be used to identify "people of interest" raising the possibility that those labeled suspicious by governments -- such as undocumented immigrants or Black activists -- will be seen as fair game for Rekognition surveillance. It also says Rekognition can monitor "all faces in group photos, crowded events, and public places such as airports" -- at a time when Americans are joining public protests at unprecedented levels.
Amazon's Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns. Today, the ACLU and a coalition of civil rights organizations demanded that Amazon stop allowing governments to use Rekognition.
May 22, 2018
By: Matt Cagle follow @Matt_Cagle and Nicole A. Ozer follow @NicoleOzer
Amazon, which got its start selling books and still bills itself as "Earth's most customer-centric company," has officially entered the surveillance business. ... The company has developed a powerful and dangerous new facial recognition system and is actively helping governments deploy it. Amazon calls the service "Rekognition."
Marketing materials and documents obtained by ACLU affiliates in three states reveal a product that can be readily used to violate civil liberties and civil rights. Powered by artificial intelligence, Rekognition can identify, track, and analyze people in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image. It can quickly scan information it collects against databases featuring tens of millions of faces, according to Amazon.
Amazon is marketing Rekognition for government surveillance. According to its marketing materials, it views deployment by law enforcement agencies as a "common use case" for this technology. Among other features, the company's materials describe "person tracking" as an "easy and accurate" way to investigate and monitor people. Amazon says Rekognition can be used to identify "people of interest" raising the possibility that those labeled suspicious by governments -- such as undocumented immigrants or Black activists -- will be seen as fair game for Rekognition surveillance. It also says Rekognition can monitor "all faces in group photos, crowded events, and public places such as airports" -- at a time when Americans are joining public protests at unprecedented levels.
Amazon's Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns. Today, the ACLU and a coalition of civil rights organizations demanded that Amazon stop allowing governments to use Rekognition.