A display of facial acknowledgment tech at CES 2019.
David Mcnew/GettyImages
Facial acknowledgment is utilized in tech items to do things like unlock your phone, include cool video camera results and assist you have fun with your robotic pet dog But other applications of the innovation aren’t constantly as innocent.
That’s why the American Civil Liberties Union has actually coordinated with more than 85 human rights groups to ask huge tech business not to offer face security innovation to the United States federal government. The union corresponded to Microsoft, Amazon and Google to make certain its position on the problem was heard.
You might’ve heard stories about the Chinese federal government explore facial acknowledgment innovation to monitior people The innovation has actually likewise had a blended performance history when it concerns its usage by police in the west. A research study from May 2018 discovered that facial acknowledgment tech utilized by the UK’s Metropolitan Police was incorrect in 98 percent of cases. But that hasn’t stopped the United States Department of Homeland Security from screening facial acknowledgment around the White House
< div class ="shortcode video v2" data-video-playlist="[{" id="" advocates="" have="" issues="" with="" amazon="" facial="" recognition="" being="" used="" by="" police="" claims="" it="" can="" match="" hundreds="" of="" faces="" in="" seconds="" and="" sold="" to="" police.="" cnet="" podcast="" team="" discusses="" the="" controversy.="" news="" video="">
Watch this:
Privacy advocates have issues with Amazon’s facial recognition…
1:11
The ACLU and the coalition of groups want to ensure that big tech companies don’t allow the US government to use their facial recognition technologies to limit human rights. The ACLU says facial recognition “gives the government new power to target and single out immigrants, religious minorities and people of color in our communities” and that “systems built on face surveillance will amplify and exacerbate historical and existing bias.”
Some of the petitioned companies have already spoken on the implications of facial recognition. Microsoft called for regulation of the technology so it isn’t used to “exacerbate social issues.” Google has said it won’t make general-purpose facial recognition programming tools available “before working through important technology and policy questions.”
Meanwhile, Amazon has taken heat for filing patents that discuss using facial recognition in smart doorbells to alert police about suspicious individuals, and for selling its Rekognition tech to law enforcement.
Microsoft, Amazon and Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the coalition’s letter.
The Honeymoon Is Over: Everything you need to know about why tech is under Washington’s microscope.
Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook’s data mining scandal.
