Tech Giant System Raises Concerns

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Amazon has been urged to stop marketing a powerful facial recognition tool to police. The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy activists are asking Amazon to stop marketing Rekognition. The organizations claim law enforcement agencies could use the technology to “easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone.”

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon is already using this tool to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail, which is a common use of such technology around the country.

Amazon’s technology isn’t that different from what face recognition companies are already selling to law enforcement agencies. But its vast reach and its interest in recruiting more police departments to take part raise concerns, said Clare Garvie, an associate at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University Law Center.

Privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing police to identify and track people in real time, reports businessinsider.com.

Amazon released Rekognition in late 2016, and the sheriff’s office in Washington County, west of Portland, became one of its first law enforcement agency customers. A year later, deputies were using it about 20 times per day — for example, to identify burglary suspects in store surveillance footage. Last month, the agency adopted policies governing its use, noting that officers in the field can use real-time face recognition to identify suspects who are unwilling or unable to provide their own ID, or if someone’s life is in danger.

In a written statement the company said it requires all of its customers to comply with the law and to be responsible in the use of its products. The statement said some agencies have used the program to find abducted people, and amusement parks have used it to find lost children.