Amazon Pauses Police Use of Facial Recognition Tech For a Year (reuters.com) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Amazon on Wednesday said it was implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, reversing its long-time support of selling the technology to law enforcement. Civil liberties activists have voiced concern that facial recognition could lead to unjust arrests during demonstrations against police brutality, racial injustice and the death of George Floyd. Critics also have questioned the software's accuracy, pointing to a past study showing Amazon's "Rekognition" service struggled to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin tones. Amazon has taken issue with that research.
The company, which sells cloud computing technology via its Amazon Web Services division, said in a statement it has pushed for regulations to ensure the software was used ethically. "We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested," Amazon said. The company said it would continue to permit use of its technology by customers Thorn and Marinus Analytics to help law enforcement find human trafficking victims. The decision follows IBM's announcement earlier this week that it was getting out of the facial recognition business entirely. It's also urging Congress to enact reforms to advance racial justice and combat systemic racism.
The company, which sells cloud computing technology via its Amazon Web Services division, said in a statement it has pushed for regulations to ensure the software was used ethically. "We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested," Amazon said. The company said it would continue to permit use of its technology by customers Thorn and Marinus Analytics to help law enforcement find human trafficking victims. The decision follows IBM's announcement earlier this week that it was getting out of the facial recognition business entirely. It's also urging Congress to enact reforms to advance racial justice and combat systemic racism.
Re: (Score:1)
You seem pretty dumb. Are you a cop?
Pointing out the obvious is now dumb?
Re: Amazon supports riots. (Score:2)
You just seem dumb.
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Those riots take out competing retailers, that is how I read this.
I doubt they planned it that way, but nice job anyway.
Amazon's face recognition AI still outperforms 5-0 (Score:4, Funny)
Critics also have questioned the software's accuracy, pointing to a past study showing Amazon's "Rekognition" service struggled to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin tones.
At least it identifies dark people as human beings - something cops often fail to do.
Re: Amazon's face recognition AI still outperforms (Score:2)
If by often you mean never, that's pretty accurate. Unless you're suggesting that cops shoot those they identify as human beings more often, in which case I guess you'd have a point.
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Unless you're suggesting that cops shoot those they identify as human beings more often, in which case I guess you'd have a point.
They don't shoot hundreds of rounds into the ground on purpose, they were trying to shoot a human every time.
And if there is a tiger on the loose, you don't send in a cop, you send in a forest ranger with a dart gun.
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If it said you weren't human, the cops would leave you alone; not their department.
So, Amazon (Score:5, Interesting)
How about your other related business - all those Ring doorbell videos you share with police? Are you suspending that too?
Just until we all forget (Score:1)
The problem is that we all work too hard, so nobody has time to pay attention when somebody is doing evil. And since evil is in and of itself profitable you can have people who do it full time. It's tough to compete.
At last, (Score:3)
something good about cloud-based applications. I've always thought it sucked that Software As A Service could be withdrawn on a whim, but in this case I'm happy about it. Now if we could only develop 'Bullets As A Service'...
pffff (Score:2)
The company said it would continue to permit use of its technology by customers Thorn and Marinus Analytics to help law enforcement find human trafficking victims.
From the marinusanalytics.com website:
Marinus Analytics is a woman-owned company founded in 2014 out of Carnegie Mellon Robotics. We investigate how AI can turn big data online into actionable intelligence.
We know that it's not just about data: it's about people. Behind massive data streams are the individuals who create them. Whether it's a dealer posting drugs for sale online, a criminal behind thousands of financial transactions, or a victim behind millions of adult advertisements... we pinpoint the person in the data.
The AI solutions we deploy help law enforcement, government, and the private sector identify and combat criminal activity. Our solutions empower data-driven, people-centric responses in the modern age.
But now somehow Amazon has the ability to change marinusanalytics contracts with the police? How? How does any of this make any sense at all? Amazon is able to dabble directly into public matters???
Re: pffff (Score:2)
It doesn't; it's just a PR move. They're willing to degrade police effectiveness in some areas in order to appeal to the mob, but they can't degrade it in other areas without risking the wrath of a different mob.
There are tons of firms that do this (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah but they're getting defunded. If they want to buy new tech, they'll have to reduce their staff even more.
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Or seize more assets. As COVID-19 is ruining parts of the economy, the tourists and drug carriers whom they used to seize assets from are staying home. It's a fascinating field: since such funds are not issued by the state or county, they don't require the legislative approval that other parts of a police budget require. Police budgets are going to be fascinating over the next few years as travel is down, and civil forfeiture of vehicles and travel funds plummets.
Huh, So IBM and Amazon Were not Looted (Score:3)
I get the business aspect of the decision. There are lots of videos of people looting. Facial Rec can expedite the identification of the looters. IBM and Amazon do not want to be on the wrong side, though the looted business owners have a different definition of wrong. The looters will be arrested anyway.
Re: (Score:1)
idiots (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or.... I wonder if they were unable to met contractual obligations to about accuracy, especially in crowds of black faces covered with masks. The COVId-19 mask protection has helped ruin the effectiveness of facial recognition tools. Perhaps they're trying to take some social credit for a technological failure?
China will fill the void (Score:2)
While I can understand the sentiment, the first thing that occurs to me is that this will drive agencies to procure this kind of technology from China, who has no qualms whatsoever about unjust arrests. (They could even have a slogan - China: For All Your Police State Needs!) Then we can have our police infested with spyware as well.
The second thing I can think is that it's a curious lack of vision that this use didn't occur to them prior to offering this technology to law enforcement. It's like if the rub
Listed reason is a farce (Score:2)
Their real concerns are unrelated to the actual protests as they are legal and protected by the first amendment. A strong concern is police using their technology to identify any of their workers who may have participated in the riots. The overwhelming majority of Americans of all ethnic groups disapprove of rioting, looting and arson. It is bad optics for the companies claim to care about minorities if the their workers were doing things like burning down minority businesses.
Their biggest concern is the ri