ACLU wants Amazon to stop offering surveillance technology – CNET


Security

ACLU wants Amazon to stop offering surveillance technology

Its message is loud and clear.

gettyimages-826000302.jpg

The ACLU wants Amazon to stop using surveillance technology.

Getty Images

The American Civil Liberties Union wants Amazon to stop providing its facial surveillance technology, Rekognition, to governments and law enforcement.  

The organization’s Washington branch on Monday delivered a petition, with more than 150,000 signatures, to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Addressed to company CEO Jeff Bezos, the petition was signed by representatives from nearly 70 organizations and Amazon shareholders concerned about immigrants’ rights as well as privacy and discrimination, the ACLU said in a statement.

“The rights of immigrants, communities of color, protesters and others will be put at risk if Amazon provides this powerful surveillance system to government agencies,” Shankar Narayan, technology and liberty director of ACLU of Washington, said in the statement.

Amazon Rekognition relies, in part, on artificial intelligence to analyze images and videos. As a result, “You can detect, analyze and compare faces for a wide variety of user verification, people counting, and public safety use cases,” according to the website.

The ACLU specifically wants Amazon “to end its practice of selling its dragnet surveillance system, Rekognition, to local enforcement.” The organization in May released emails it says shows how Amazon has been pushing its surveillance technology to law enforcement.

Microsoft also came under scrutiny recently after writing in January that it was “proud” to supply its Azure cloud services, which include the ability to use “deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification” to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) Microsoft has since changed its stance, saying they are “dismayed” by the actions of ICE in a statement.

“Rekognition marketing materials read like a user manual for authoritarian surveillance,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties director for the ACLU of California, said last month. “We’re blowing the whistle before it’s too late.”

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rekognition is being used in Florida and Oregon, and Arizona and California have expressed interest in the technology, the ACLU said. 

Update, 3:00 p.m.: Adds information about Microsoft also coming under scrutiny for facial recognition services.

All Rights Reserved.
Affiliate Disclosure
CNET may get a commission from retail offers.
Top Brands



Source link

Share

Comments

  1. wwjttanug ohkbj dtutstm hvov sliihqczsdogflr

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *