Amazon pitches facial recognition system to US immigration authorities
In October 2018, the answers to a FOIA request filed by the Project on Government Oversight revealed that in June 2018 Amazon pitched its Rekognition facial recognition system to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as a way to help them target or identify immigrants. Amazon has also marketed Rekognition to police departments, and it is used by officers in Oregon and Florida even though tests have raised questions about its accuracy. Hundreds of Amazon workers protested by writing a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos saying they refused to contribute to tools that violate human rights or build a platform for ICE. Amazon was also believed to be the front runner to win a $10 billion cloud computing contract for the Pentagon's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI).
Writer: Drew Harwell
Publication: Washington Post
Publication date: 2018-10-23