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Amazon Investors (AMZN) will vote on May 22 to decide whether the e-commerce giant should put an end to sales of its controversial facial recognition technology to governments and law enforcement agencies in the world.
However, Amazon's board of directors recommends that shareholders vote against the measure, as well as a secondary measure asking the company to publish a report on the risks associated with the use of technology by governments.
The company is already working with law enforcement agencies in the United States, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and MIT Media Lab said the technology was flawed, a charge dismissed by Amazon.
Technologies such as those of Amazon are increasingly being monitored by state and local governments, as well as by civil rights groups who fear that it will be used to spy on Americans. ordinary. It has become so urgent that companies such as Microsoft and Google reject requests for technology use by some agencies.
The vote of the council
Investors opposed to Amazon's sale of its facial recognition technology, called Amazon Rekognition, are asking shareholders to vote to: "ban the sale of facial recognition technology to government agencies unless the Council concludes, after a assessment by independent evidence that the technology does not cause or contribute to actual or potential violations of civil and human rights. "
Shareholders are also seeking to have Amazon commission an independent recognition study to determine if it poses a threat to minorities, immigrants or activists. it will be sold to authoritarian regimes; and what are the operational and financial risks associated with these problems.
Until now, Amazon has been testing its Rekognition technology with the Orlando Police Department in Florida and the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon. Civil rights groups, AI specialists and defense lawyers met with resistance in both cases.
It is feared that the recognition will disproportionately target minorities, members of civil rights groups, and lead to false arrests.
In July 2018, the A.C.L.U. conducted a study that, he said, compared the photos of 28 members of Congress to photos of known criminals. A secondary test conducted by the M.I.T. Media Lab in January 2019 and reported by the New York Times found that Rekognition was struggling to identify female faces and faces of individuals with dark skin.
Amazon representatives, however, rejected these claims, asserting that representatives of A.C.L.U. and M.I.T. Media Lab studies did not correctly use Rekognition technology. The company has also released a long statement about how it uses Rekognition.
However, lawmakers and other companies in the technology sector are calling for increased monitoring of technology.
The answer to facial recognition
Prior to the Amazon shareholders meeting, the San Francisco supervisory board decided to ban the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, while Massachusetts currently has a bill aimed at impose a moratorium on the technical committee.
Microsoft President (MSFT) Brad Smith said his company has rejected the sale of his own face-recognition technology to a police department, fearing that it will disproportionately affect women and minorities . Smith said the technology was mostly white, male, and therefore, it would not have been accurate for public users. The company has also denied the sale of its technology to a foreign country.
Google (GOOG, GOOGL), meanwhile, chose not to sell its technology at all.
Kent Walker, Google's vice president of global politics, said in an article, "We continue to work with many organizations to identify and resolve these issues, and unlike some other companies, Google Cloud has chosen not to offer facial treatment for general use. recognition APIs before addressing important technology and policy issues. "
Facial recognition technology has been used to arrest dangerous people, including the suspect of The Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland. But Amazon's shareholders will have to determine whether these benefits outweigh the concerns of civil rights groups, as well as some rival legislators and technology companies.
The Amazon Shareholder Information Meeting will begin at 9:00 am Wednesday, May 22nd.
More from Dan:
Send an email to Daniel Howley at [email protected]; follow him on Twitter at@DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, andLinkedIn.finance.yahoo.com/
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