Amazon’s Fight for Facial Recognition
On September 9, 2020, Portland’s city council passed the strictest ban on facial recognition in the United States. It joins bills passed by San Francisco, Boston and Oakland. The difference is that the other three cities only barred the use of facial recognition for government agencies. The Portland bill is tougher as it prevents private businesses from using facial recognition as well, pushing the technology out of the city entirely. This change means that, starting in January 2021, Portland will be free of facial recognition.
Despite the vote ultimately being unanimous, it wasn’t an entirely smooth process. Amazon, the company that just recently promised to stop all facial recognition services for the police for a year, wasn’t happy about facial recognition being banned outright. Even though there’s been plenty of research about Amazon’s Rekognition that revealed inherent biases and faultiness, the company isn’t about to let little things like this slow down its quest for profit. After all, they’ve allowed dangerous products to stay on the market before, why stop now?
Since late last year, Amazon has been lobbying hard against this bill, spending money in an attempt to keep facial recognition running in Portland. It’s no surprise as Rekognition is crucial for Amazon Web Services, one that’s used by major companies like NFL, Sky News, CBS and National Geographic. When it comes to choosing between a bit more profit and the people, Amazon always picks the money. Well, until it gets caught and blasted by everyone in the media.
The fight for facial recognition won’t end here though, especially since Amazon has added an ex-NSA chief to its board of directors. It’s pretty clear which side Amazon has chosen in the “facial recognition vs privacy” debate.
