S.T.O.P. Condemns Amazon For Breaking Police AI Moratorium, Selling Facial Recognition To FBI

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For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Condemns Amazon For Breaking Police AI Moratorium, Selling Facial Recognition To FBI (New York, NY 1/26/24) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, condemns Amazon for breaking its 2020 moratorium on sales of biometric AI software to law enforcement following the FBI’s announcement it would use the tech giant’s Rekognition-brand software. Amazon sought widespread praise for limiting the use of its technology after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, following years of protest that facial recognition fueled wrongful arrests and police violence, particularly targeting Black and other BIPOC individuals. The civil rights group renewed its call on Amazon to permanently stop law enforcement use of facial recognition and for legislation outlawing police use of the technology. SEE: FedScoop – Justice Department discloses FBI project with Amazon Rekognition tool https://fedscoop.com/doj-fbi-amazon-rekognition-technology-ai-use-case/ “Big tech can’t be trusted to self-regulate it’s own AI products like facial recognition,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “Sadly, many of these promises aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Amazon’s flagrant violation of its own policy just underlines the urgent need for legislation to protect the public from facial recognition and other policing AI. We shouldn’t have to trust companies to keep us safe from the AI tools they make.” In 2021, the civil rights group warned that Amazon’s extension of its moratorium on police use of facial recognition fell short of the permanent ban needed. Amazon passed the original moratorium in June 2020 at the height of global protests against anti-Black police violence. At the time, S.T.O.P. said Amazon’s one year, partial ban was “too little, too late.” SEE: Press Release - S.T.O.P. Warns Amazon Facial Recognition Moratorium ‘Falls Short’ https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2021/5/18/stop-warns-amazon-facial-recognition-moratorium-falls-short Press Release - S.T.O.P. Condemns Amazon Police Facial Recognition Moratorium As ‘too little, too late’ https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2020/6/10/stop-condemns-amazon-police-facial-recognition-moratorium-as-too-little-too-late?rq=amazon The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color. --END-- CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. Copyright © 2021 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved.