Tech
Amazon extends moratorium on police use of facial recognition software
Nearly one year ago, Amazon banned the use of its facial recognition software, Rekognition, from being used by US police departments, and now it seems like that ban is set to continue indefinitely.
The initial decision came after nationwide protests against police violence in the US, following the death of George Floyd.
It is unclear how many police departments use facial recognition technology to track down potential suspects or persons of interest.
Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy project director at the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed support for Amazon’s move and called on federal and state governments to ban law enforcement’s use of the software.
“Face recognition technology fuels the over-policing of Black and Brown communities, and has already led to the false arrests and wrongful incarcerations of multiple Black men,”
Critics have noted research born out of a project called Gender Shades, which showed Rekognition struggled to determine the sex of individuals with darker skin tones. Amazon has contested this.
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp has also suspended the technology at its stores.