ACLU:
Did you know that 28 members of Congress were matched with photos from a mugshot database? But it’s not because those mugshots are actually theirs. It’s because facial recognition is flawed and dangerous – and that could have dire consequences for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live.
The members of Congress falsely matched to mugshots include Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and legislators of all ages. But they are disproportionately members of color. Amazon’s “Rekognition” tool, in the hands of law enforcement, will be dangerous to people of color, immigrants, and political protesters. But instead of taking these concerns seriously, Amazon is burying its head in the sand.
If face surveillance is deployed in our communities, it’s not hard to imagine a police officer getting a “match” indicating that a person has a previous concealed-weapon arrest, biasing the officer before an encounter even begins. Or your home could be searched based on a false identification that brought law enforcement knocking on your door.
This isn’t hypothetical, Joseph. Amazon is aggressively marketing this technology to the police, boasting that it can identify up to 100 faces in a single image, track people in real time through surveillance cameras, and scan footage from body cameras. And a sheriff’s department in Oregon is already using face surveillance to scan for people’s faces in a mugshot database. It’s clear Amazon doesn’t take civil rights seriously.
Get the full rundown of how face surveillance is dangerous and biased.
The good news is that many of us are already speaking up. The ACLU is urging a federal moratorium on use of this technology for law enforcement and immigration enforcement purposes – until we can have a debate on what (if any) uses of this technology should be allowed.
Amazon – and the government – is counting on us letting face surveillance slip past us, but we won’t allow that. That’s why we need to keep up the fight by staying informed.
