Amazon has plans to self-regulate some of its most controversial technology, and the tech giant is encouraging lawmakers to enforce these self-imposed regulations.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that the company is in the process of developing laws to regulate the use of Amazon’s controversial facial recognition technology on Wednesday, Vox reported. The company first published guidelines regulating the technology, called Amazon Rekognition, back in February. Now Amazon plans to take those efforts a step further, drafting federal legislation to pitch to lawmakers.
“Our public policy team is actually working on facial recognition regulations; it makes a lot of sense to regulate that,” Bezos told a reporter at Wednesday’s annual Alexa gadget event in Seattle on Wednesday.
“It’s a perfect example of something that has really positive uses, so you don’t want to put the brakes on it,” Bezos said. “But, at the same time, there’s also potential for abuses of that kind of technology, so you do want regulations. It’s a classic dual-use kind of technology.”
Bezos has yet to provide details explaining what the legislation specifically entails.
The Amazon Rekognition software allows users to match photos and videos of people’s faces with databases of other face photos. The technology, which Amazon has reportedly marketed to both corporations and law enforcement agencies, has sparked controversy among critics who fear the technology could be misused, especially by powerful law enforcement agencies like ICE.
These fears may not be unfounded. Last summer, the ACLU tested the software, ultimately finding that it incorrectly matched 28 members of congress, including many people of color, with mugshots of criminals.
“It’s a welcome sign that Amazon is finally acknowledging the dangers of face surveillance. But we’ve seen this playbook before,” said ACLU Northern CA Attorney Jacob Snow in a statement. “Once companies realize that people are demanding strong privacy protections, they sweep in, pushing weak rules that won’t protect consumer privacy and rights. Cities across the country are voting to ban face surveillance, while Amazon is pushing its surveillance tech deeper into communities.”
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
