Amazon Criticized by Civil Rights Group Over Facial Recognition

Amazon Criticized by Civil Rights Group Over Facial Recognition
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Amazon drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union over a facial-recognition system offered to law-enforcement agencies, according to Bloomberg.

In marketing materials obtained by the group, Amazon Web Services said its Rekognition system uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos, enabling law enforcement to track people. "Amazon’s Rekognition raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns," the group said in a statement. "Today, the ACLU and a coalition of civil rights organizations demanded that Amazon stop allowing governments to use Rekognition.

Law enforcement agencies in Florida and Oregon are using the service for surveillance, according to the ACLU. The group used public records requests to learn about the service. Government use of facial-recognition software has raised concerns among civil rights groups that maintain it can be used to quiet dissent and target groups such as undocumented immigrants and black rights activists. Some AI software that’s used for facial recognition has been shown to be racially biased because it was trained using images with relatively few minorities included.

"When we find that AWS services are being abused by a customer, we suspend that customer’s right to use our services," Amazon said in an emailed statement. "We require our customers to comply with the law and be responsible when using Amazon Rekognition." The company said "various agencies" have used Rekognition to find abducted people, without providing specific examples. Amusement parks use it to find lost children, while the recent British royal wedding used Rekognition to identify attendees, it added.