Microsoft has joined Amazon and IBM in banning the sale of facial recognition technology to police departments and pushing for federal laws to regulate the technology.
Microsoft is joining Amazon and IBM when it comes to halting the sale of facial recognition technology to police departments. In a statement released Thursday by Microsoft President Brad Smith, he said the ban would stick until federal laws regulating the technology’s use were put in place.
“We will not sell facial recognition tech to police in the U.S. until there is a national law in place… We must pursue a national law to govern facial recognition grounded in the protection of human rights,” Smith said during a virtual event hosted by the Washington Post.
On Wednesday, Amazon announced a one-year ban on police departments using its facial recognition technology. In a short statement the company said it would be pushing for “stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology.”
The actions by both tech behemoths dovetail actions by IBM earlier this week. In a statement by IBM’s new CEO Arvind Krishna, he said that it will no longer offer general purpose facial recognition or analysis software “for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency.”
Krishna’s statements were part of a letter to Congress where he advocated policy reviews such as “police reform, responsible use of technology, and broadening skills and educational opportunities.”
The moves align with a broader demand for law enforcement reforms and calls for racial justice by social justice activists in the wake of the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis, Minnesota police and the weeks of protests that followed.
“It should not have taken the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and far too many other black people, hundred of thousands of people taking to the streets, brutal law enforcement attacks against protesters and journalists, and the deployment of military-grade surveillance equipment on protests led by black activists for these companies to wake up to the everyday realities of police surveillance for black and brown communities,” said Matt Cagle, technology and civil liberties attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California in a statement to NBC News this week.
Source: Threatpost
No comments:
Post a Comment