Amazon, Orlando Police Department reinitiate facial acknowledgment pilot

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The Orlando Police Department prepares to reboot tests of questionable facial acknowledgment software application made by Amazon after problems about personal privacy triggered the department to stop the program last month.

The Florida police will evaluate the software application, called Rekognition, with 8 city-owned electronic cameras, the department validated in an e-mail. Orlando PD might include more electronic cameras to evaluate whether the software application can deal with bigger volumes.

Rekognition is created to determine individuals, things and activities in both videos and images, utilizing databases.

“We have made good strides in testing this technology and believe it is important to continue this evaluation period to determine if it’s a concept that could add immeasurable value in enhancing the city’s public safety mission in a manner that balances reasonable privacy concerns,” John Mina, Orlando’s authorities chief, stated in a declaration.

The choice marks a change of mind after the department dropped its pilot program in June following an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos from the ACLU that highlighted personal privacy issues. Amazon staff members have actually likewise objected the sale of Rekognition software application.

Last Friday, authorities and city authorities informed the city board and the mayor they desired more time to assess Rekognition prior to choosing whether the city must acquire it. Orlando is presently evaluating the software application in a pilot that utilizes video streams from city-owned electronic cameras and pictures of 7 law enforcement officers who offered.

Amazon’s facial acknowledgment innovation has a varied customers, consisting of AI designers, interaction business and others.

Potential clients, such as the Orlando PD, can run numerous tests to assess the software application without ending up being a main customer of Amazon’s Rekognition, as long as the business wants to give the pilot. It’s uncertain which other police, if any, are pilotingRekognition

“Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology,” an AWS representative stated in an emailed declaration. “Like any of our AWS services, we require our customers to comply with the law and be responsible when using Amazon Rekognition.”