Days after IBM pulled out of facial recognition tech used for mass surveillance, Amazon said yesterday that it’s putting a year-long pause on its f

Amazon will be pausing its facial recognition program for the police for a year

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2020-06-11 07:16:15

Days after IBM pulled out of facial recognition tech used for mass surveillance, Amazon said yesterday that it’s putting a year-long pause on its facial recognition program for the US police forces. The company said it’ll still allow usage of the software, known as Rekognition, for preventing child abuse on the internet and stopping human trafficking.

But Amazon‘s step feels like a measure to earn some brownie points. The ecommerce giant’s announcement doesn’t mention anything about steps it’s taking to ensure that its algorithm is less biased and doesn’t allow surveillance or racial targeting.

The company is putting the onus on Congress to come up with regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology:

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.