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(Reuters) – Orlando has stopped testing Amazon's facial recognition program after rights groups have expressed concern that the service could be used in a way that could violate the law. civil liberties.
The city of Florida ended a pilot program last week after the expiry of its contract with Amazon.com Inc. to use its Rekognition service, media reports said Monday.
"Partnering with innovative companies to test new technologies – while ensuring privacy rights and in no way violating the rights of others – is essential for us to protect our community," said the city. the Orlando Police Department. in a joint statement provided to Floridapolitics.com on Monday.
Amazon could not be immediately contacted for a comment.
Orlando was one of the many US jurisdictions that Amazon launched its service since its unveiling in late 2016, as a means of detecting offensive content and ensuring public safety.
Last month, more than 40 civil rights groups sent a letter to Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, claiming that the company's cloud computing technology was ready to to be misused. The letter highlighted how new tools for identifying and tracking people could be used to strengthen surveillance states.
On Monday, the Florida section of the American Civil Liberties Union sent a similar letter to city leaders, saying that people "should be free to walk the street without being monitored by the government."
During the pilot program, Orlando did not use the technology in a survey and did not use photographs of members of the public, said police sergeant Eduardo Bernal at the USA Today newspaper.
The power of technology has been exposed in Oregon, where law enforcement has downloaded 300,000 snapshots of 2001 photos into the Amazon cloud and indexed them in Rekognition, according to an Amazon blog.
Rekognition has identified four faces with more than 80% similarity with an image of an unidentified hardware store thief; A search on Facebook subsequently contributed to the case, according to the message.
Amazon has stated that it requires that customers abide by the law and be responsible when they use Rekognition.
The largest online retailer in the world is not alone: Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. also offer offer recognition services. Face identification has also become a common feature in the consumer products of Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc.
Report by Brendan O 'Brien to Milwaukee; Editing by Peter Graff
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