Amazon is Selling This to Law Enforcement and Some People are Pissed

Amazon is in hot water with the ACLU and a coalition of civil rights groups.

The e-commerce giant’s facial recognition technology Rekognition is being offered to government customers despite Amazon actively helping law enforcement implement the technology which could have privacy implications.

The concern is that this technology could be used for the wrong reasons. It’s powerful enough to track a face in a crowded street and could be used to locate activists. There could be even abuse by immigration officials according to the ALCU.

Police in multiple regions have been working with Amazon on projects including a project in Orlando that allows Amazon to search for “people of interest” through city cameras. In Washington County, Oregon officers are able to scan people to see if they turn up in a mugshot database.

According to the ACLU, Amazon provided Washington County a roadmap under a non-disclosure agreement that offered to link the county to other government customers interested in Rekognition, including body camera manufacturers.

The fact that facial recognition on body cameras is illegal in Oregon is an issue.

Amazon said it would “suspend” access to Amazon Web Services-based features like Rekognition if a customer “abused” them.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.