The United States is blocking Amazon's efforts to prevent shareholders' votes on facial recognition

(Reuters) – US securities regulators have rejected Amazon.com Inc.'s attempts to prevent its investors from considering two shareholder proposals over the company's controversial sale of a facial recognition service. sign of increasing attention to technology.

Decisions, which one Wednesday from officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), followed an unusual call from Amazon to prevent voting on non-binding proposals at the next annual meeting of the society.

A proposal would force Amazon to stop offering facial recognition to governments unless the company's board of directors determines that sales do not violate civil liberties. A second would require an audit to examine the possible harm caused by the service to rights and privacy, called Rekognition.

Both proposals face a tough battle to get the majority of investor support from the largest online retail and cloud computing company in the world. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos will retain voting rights on about 16 percent of the shares after MacKenzie Bezos' divorce, she said Thursday. [nL1N21M1JB]

Amazon declined to comment on the SEC's decisions. The company is one of many marketers of facial recognition technology and has revealed sales to law enforcement and private customers using the service for purposes such as celebrity identification.

Civil liberties groups have expressed concerns, including the discovery by researchers that Amazon's technology was more difficult than some of its peers to identify the sex of individuals with darker skin, raising fears unjust arrests. Amazon defended its work and said that all users must comply with the law.

Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, a group defending shareholders' interests, including a religious order, which presented the resolutions, said the SEC's decisions show that developing rules relating to the Facial recognition is "really a crucial issue for a company like Amazon". it manages the business risk associated with the technology. "

According to letters posted on the SEC's website, Amazon had asked the regulator to approve the proposals that did not seem significant to its business, but was rejected on March 28.

Amazon then made the unusual decision to request a reconsideration of this decision, but was again rejected in a letter from the agency dated April 3.

Other letters show that the SEC has allowed Amazon to ignore proposals such as the creation of a risk oversight committee, and that Amazon has addressed the climate issues raised by the company. other investors.