Amazon issues a one-year ban on police use of its facial recognition tech

Amazon today announced that it is implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of its controversial 'Rekognition' facial recognition technology. The announcement comes just days after IBM decided to exit the facial recognition business amid criticism that most commercial facial recognition systems have a racial and gender bias.

The e-commerce giant said in a statement:

We've advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge. We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested.

Needless to say, however, the actual reason behind the move is the death of George Floyd and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos publicly proclaimed his support for the movement earlier this week and even responded to emails from customers angry over the company's stance.

As noted by CNBC, the official Rekognition website currently lists only the Washington County Sheriff Office in Oregon as a customer. Amazon had rolled out Rekognition in 2016 as a service to "detect objects, scenes, and faces in images." In 2019, Rekognition became a topic of controversy after a study by Joy Buolamwini and Deborah Raji found that it wasn't as efficient as facial recognition systems from IBM and Microsoft when it came to identifying the gender of female and darker-skinned individuals.

How to fight injustice and stay safe while doing it