Amazon on Wednesday banned police use of its face-recognition technology for a year, making it the latest tech giant to step back from the use of its systems by law-enforcement, that have faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin.
It did not say why it didn’t take action until now. Ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd have focused attention on racial injustice in the U.S. and how police use technology to track people
Law enforcement agencies use facial recognition to identify suspects, but critics say it can be misused. A number of U.S. cities have banned its use by police and other government agencies, led by San Francisco last year.
Clare Garvie, researcher at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology. She said, “Amazon’s decision is an important symbolic step, but this doesn’t really change the face recognition landscape in the United States since it’s not a major player.
Studies led by MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini found racial and gender disparities in facial recognition software. Those findings spurred Microsoft and IBM to improve their systems, but irked Amazon, which last year publicly attacked her research methods. A group of artificial intelligence scholars, including a winner of computer science’s top prize, last year launched a spirited defense of her work and called on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition software to police.
Buolamwini yesterday called Amazon’s announcement, “welcomed though unexpected announcement.” She also said, “Microsoft also needs to take a stand. More importantly our lawmakers need to step up” to rein in harmful deployments of the technologies.”
Amazon isn’t abandoning facial recognition altogether. The company said organizations, such as those that use Rekognition to help find missing children, will still have access to the technology.
Ángel Díaz, an attorney at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said, “We agree that Congress needs to act, but local communities should also be empowered to voice their concerns and decide if and how they want this technology deployed at all.”
