Amazon has announced that it will put a one year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition technology.
“We’ve advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge,” the tech company stated in a blog post.
“We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested,” the tech giant added.
The news comes as a number of organizations look to reevaluate their relationship with law enforcement amid worldwide protests against police brutality. While the company’s moratorium may allow time to examine its relationship with police, many critics point out present day loopholes in the company’s decree.
Amazon did note that it will allow law enforcement to use facial recognition to help fund human trafficking victims and missing children. Furthermore, critics have noted that Amazon did not state if the moratorium would also apply to federal law enforcement. Also, Amazon did not state what changes may be made after the one year period. These loopholes could become a point of scrutiny as Congress recently allowed federal law enforcement to utilize facial recognition app Clearview AI to identify and arrest protesters.
Amazon has not yet responded to concerns over possible loopholes.
