Both companies need to join IBM and others in entirely abandoning the development of this mass surveillance technology.
Microsoft CEO Brad Smith declared during an online Washington Post event today that his company “will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights that will govern this technology.” This follows Amazon’s announcement yesterday that it is implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of the company’s controversial Rekognition facial recognition platform. Amazon says it hopes Congress will step up during this pause to implement appropriate rules for facial recognition technology.
These moves follow IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s letter to Congress announcing that his company is getting out the facial recognition business. “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values,” Krishna writes. “We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.
