Amazon pitched ICE on facial recognition technology: Report
Amazon pitched potential uses for its facial recognition software to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last June, according to a report Tuesday.
An Amazon Web Services salesperson reached out to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations office on June 15, 2018, detailing talking points in a meeting between the two sides that took place three days earlier, The Daily Beast reported. The salesperson asked to set up an additional briefing to discuss “Rekognition video tagging/analysis, scalability, [and] custom object libraries” as well as “predictive analytics” that could be used to identify specific individuals.
“Thanks again for your interest in AWS to support ICE and the HSI mission,” the salesperson wrote.
Amazon has drawn criticism in recent months over its apparent efforts to sell facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the tools, as well as the technology’s potential applications.
An ICE representative said the agency “does not have a contract” with Amazon Web Services, noting “it would be inappropriate” to comment on Rekognition technology given the lack of a formal arrangement. The agency went on to describe the meeting with Amazon as “fairly standard,” but declined to say how many times it has met with Amazon officials.
“ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations has used facial recognition in the past to assist during the course of criminal investigations related to fraudulent activities, identity theft and child exploitation crimes, and the component will continue to explore cutting-edge technology to compliment criminal investigations going forward,” ICE said in a statement.
Rekognition enables law enforcement agencies to scan the faces of groups of people in real time against criminal databases. However, the technology’s effectiveness has come into question. A July study conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union found that the system’s false matches disproportionately impacted people of color. The technology also falsely identified 28 current members of Congress as criminals.
“We participated with a number of other technology companies in technology ‘boot camps’ sponsored by McKinsey Company, where a number of technologies were discussed, including Rekognition,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement. “As we usually do, we followed up with customers who were interested in learning more about how to use our services.”
A group of Amazon employees wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last June, demanding that the company cease marketing facial recognition technology to law enforcement.
"We don’t have to wait to find out how these technologies will be used. We already know that in the midst of historic militarization of police, renewed targeting of Black activists, and the growth of a federal deportation force currently engaged in human rights abuses — this will be another powerful tool for the surveillance state, and ultimately serve to harm the most marginalized," the letter said, according to the Washington Post.
This story has been updated.
