Amazon employees set to confront Jeff Bezos over the firm’s controversial facial recognition technology at all-hands meeting
- Workers plan to bombard Bezos with concerns at all-hands meeting Thursday
- Pressure has been mounting for Amazon to cancel its contracts with ICE and law enforcement agents, which have been testing its Rekognition technology
- Comes as privacy advocates have hit out at Amazon for the tech’s implications
- The organization says it ‘reads like a user manual for authoritarian surveillance’
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Amazon employees plan to take CEO Jeff Bezos to task about the firm’s controversial facial recognition software, Rekognition.
The tech giant will host an all-staff meeting on Thursday and it’s there that employees will flood executives with questions about Rekognition, as well as why Amazon continues work with immigration authorities, according to Recode.
Pressure has been mounting for Amazon to cancel its contracts with ICE and law enforcement agents, which allow them to test out the facial recognition technology.
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Amazon employees plan to take CEO Jeff Bezos (pictured) to task at an all-hands meeting on Thursday about the firm’s controversial facial recognition software, Rekognition
Amazon lets employees submit their questions for Bezos and other executives beforehand using an online form.
They then go through the list and decide on which questions to answer.
A group of employees plan to submit numerous questions on the topic of Rekognition with the hope that executives will have no choice but to answer them.
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‘We know that the questions are now pre-screened, but we think that if enough people submit questions, there is a greater chance we can hold leadership accountable,’ an Amazon employee told Recode.
‘Write your own personal message, or copy/paste this one if you don’t have time: ‘Why is Amazon continuing to support ICE’s regime of deportation, and even offering to sell them facial recognition software?’
This time, the meeting will be livestreamed to all employees globally.
Employees plan to submit numerous questions on the topic of Rekognition, Amazon’s facial recognition tech, with the hope that executives will have no chance but to answer them
The group includes staffers who have previously spoken out about Amazon’s facial recognition technology.
In June, hundreds of Amazon employees penned a letter addressed to Bezos, titled ‘We Won’t Build It,’ calling on him to end Amazon’s Rekognition contracts with the police.
The letter detailed concerns around how the technology would be deployed, as well as the possibility for bias, citing ‘historic militarization of police, renewed targeting of Black activists, and the growth of a federal deportation force currently engaged in human rights abuses.’
Employees also urged Amazon to end its relationship with Palantir, a controversial data company.
It comes as Amazon has defended its Rekognition tech, alongside growing concerns from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
Facial recognition is used by many technology companies, but activists say Amazon’s system could lead to dangerous surveillance powers for law enforcement
WHAT HAS AMAZON SAID ABOUT ITS RECKOGNITION AI FACIAL RECOGNITION TOOL?
Amazon has defended giving its Big Brother-style facial recognition tool to police following an outcry from civil rights groups.
Amazon’s facial recognition tool, dubbed ‘Rekognition’, is currently being used by law enforcement agencies in Oregon and Florida.
In an emailed statement, however, the firm said it has ‘ many useful applications in the real world’, such as locating lost children at amusement parks
It also noted that the company ‘requires that customers comply with the law and be responsible when they use’ its software products.
Speaking to the BBC, a spokesman said: ‘Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology.
‘Imagine if customers couldn’t buy a computer because it was possible to use that computer for illegal purposes?’
The ACLU claims the software guide for the AI ‘reads like a user manual for authoritarian surveillance’.
But Amazon said ‘quality of life would be much worse’ if technologies such as this were blocked because of fears they may be misused.
It has pointed out that its tool has helped find lost children in the past, and claims it has great potential for fighting crime in future.
Amazon Rekognition has been used for a number of positive purposes already, the company claims.
This includes using the program to find children lost in amusement parks and identifying people who have been abducted.
However, Amazon is drawing the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other privacy advocates over the tool.
Amazon offers the technology to law enforcement for just $6 (£4.50) to $12 (£9) a month. It counts the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon and the city of Orlando as customers
First released in 2016, Amazon has since been selling it on the cheap to several police departments around the US, listing the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon and the city of Orlando, Florida among its customers.
Amazon offers the technology to law enforcement for just $6 (£4.50) to $12 (£9) a month.
Deputies in Oregon had been using Rekognition about 20 times per day – for example, to identify burglary suspects in store surveillance footage.
Last month, the agency adopted policies governing its use, noting that officers in the field can use real-time face recognition to identify suspects who are unwilling or unable to provide their own ID, or if someone’s life is in danger.
‘We are not mass-collecting. We are not putting a camera out on a street corner,’ said Deputy Jeff Talbot, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
‘We want our local community to be aware of what we’re doing, how we’re using it to solve crimes – what it is and, just as importantly, what it is not.’
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