Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos laughs as he talks to the media while touring the new Amazon Spheres during the grand opening at Amazon's Seattle headquarters in Seattle Washington U.S
US civil liberties groups on Tuesday called on Amazon.com Inc to stop offering facial recognition services to governments, warning that the software could be used to target immigrants and people of colour unfairly.
Rekognition technology is now operating across Orlando, with footage rolling in from "cameras all over the city" - and Orlando's police chief has praised the "first-of-its-kind public-private partnership" with Amazon. Its impressive Rekognition technology is the flawless tool for government entities wishing to obliterate the idea of personal privacy. "We are a subscriber to this stream, we analyze the video in real time, search against the collection of faces that they have, these could their mayor, they want to know if the mayor of the city is in a place, they want to know if persons of interest they want to track".
"This product (Rekognition) poses a grave threat to communities, including people of colour and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build", the letter said. "By automating mass surveillance, facial recognition systems like Rekognition threaten this freedom". They suspect that the government agencies will deploy Rekognition, which was publicly introduced publicly in November 2016 to detect potentially unsafe content and track people, to track a variety of things including determining people who attended a protest, monitoring immigrants, and tracking people from various minority communities.
Law enforcement has made wide use of facial recognition for a range of tasks, from running mug shots against databases of drivers' license photos to scanning of people walking by surveillance cameras. The statement read: "Rekognition is a powerful surveillance system readily available to violate rights and target communities of color".
Amazon has not been shy about its collaborative efforts with law enforcement.
The ACLU and other groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch, wrote to Amazon after receiving responses to public record requests to law enforcement agencies using Rekognition.
The letter from civil liberties groups did not call for the government to outlaw Amazon's technology, but for Amazon to refrain from selling it to the government.
Marvin Ellison, JC Penney CEO, leaving for Lowe's
Software maker Adobe Systems climbed 2 percent to $242.77 after it agreed to buy Magento Commerce for $1.68 billion. I suspect many seasoned retail executives won't exactly clamor for the enormous challenge of making J.C.
Tamil Nadu 10th result 2018 declared, here's direct link to check
Compared to 2017, there is not much change in the result; in the TN SSLC 2017, students had secured a pass percentage of 94.4%. The TNBSE Class 10 Result 2018 will be declared on its official website at www.tnresults.nic.in, www.dge.tn.nic.in .
Republicans, no Democrats, invited to see documents on US election probe
Sunday was not the first time that Trump accused his predecessor of politically motivated activity against him. She says no White House staffers - including chief of staff John Kelly - will be present.
"Amazon should never be in the business of aiding and abetting racial discrimination and xenophobia - but that's exactly what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is doing when he sells these loosely regulated facial recognition tools to local police departments".
"Seconds saved in the field can make the difference in saving a life", Chris Adzima, an analyst in the Washington County Sheriff's Office in OR, said in the blog post.
No images of the public are being used in the pilot and the Rekognition system is also not being used "in an investigative capacity", he said.
Some of the documents obtained by the ACLU show the user interface for the facial recognition software.
The ACLU raises concerns about future abuse of such systems, for other purposes than looking for suspected criminals, and worries that Amazon's name, brand and reputation may help spread such systems to more state agencies and countries across the world.
"Once a risky surveillance system like this is turned against the public, the harm can't be undone". To date, facial recognition software has managed to generate high numbers of false positives, while only producing a handful of valid arrests. " Law enforcement agencies in Orlando, Florida, and Washington County have praised the software". In fact, Washington County began using Rekognition technology "even as employees raised questions internally".
Recommended News
-
23 May 2018USA employee suffers brain injury in China after 'abnormal sounds'
Embassy spokeswoman Jinnie Lee said the employee reported the symptoms beginning late past year and they lasted through April. CNN has reached out to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs but has not yet received a response on this matter.
22 May 2018Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink trains cancelled and delayed
More than four million trains across Britain have been rescheduled, in changes created to allow 400 extra trains to run each day. In most cases, they will be positive changes; but in some areas things will be different and the times may have changed.
22 May 2018Independence report will not be sugar-coated, Nicola Sturgeon says
Downing Street said: "Now is not the time for another divisive independence referendum and there is not appetite for one". Wealthy investors would be given preferential treatment under a separate Scotland's immigration system using. -
23 May 2018Battlefield V Teaser Trailer Seemingly Confirms WWII Setting
If you can not wait to see more of what they are preparing, you will be happy to know that today they shared its first teaser . Of course, this is also tracks with my earlier reports that Battlefield V is taking the franchise back to World War II .
23 May 2018UK's Vedanta Resources working with regulators to restart Tamil Nadu's copper smelter
Ten persons were killed in a police firing when a massive rally taken out demanding the closure of the unit turned violent . Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed the death of protesters a "brutal example of state sponsored terrorism".
23 May 2018Congress moves to dismantle key post-crisis bank rules
But two dozen midsize regional banks will no longer have to hold as much capital to cover losses on their balance sheets. The legislation also exempts certain banks and credit unions from requirements to report some mortgage loan data. -
23 May 2018Hundreds Attend Vigil For Jastine
A candlelight vigil has also been organized in memory of Valdez, which will take place at the Clock Tower in Enniskerry , County Wicklow.
23 May 2018Philip Roth Has Died at 85
Pulitzer-prize victor Philip Roth died at the age of 85 on Wednesday, The New York Times reported quoting his friends. Roth died of congestive heart failure surrounded by close friends and family, his friend Judith Thurman said.
22 May 201814 countries recall envoys after Venezuela re-elected Maduro as president
Mr Maduro won 68 per cent of the votes cast, according to the electoral commission that is packed with government loyalists. On Saturday, the US ramped up pressure on Caracas by imposing new sanctions against the government's top officials. -
23 May 2018EBOLA OUTBREAK: Nurse latest to die from disease as death toll SURGES
"This is Congo's ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976 , when the disease was first identified", AP reported . Symptoms can appear mild at first, surfacing on average between eight and 10 days after first contact.
23 May 2018Texas Governor to Hold Talks on School Violence After Massacre
Dan Patrick says violent video games and eroding moral values might be to blame for the surge of violence in schools. North identifies the "disease" as youngsters growing up in a culture where violence is commonplace.
23 May 2018Global Positioning System to refer patients without cancer symptoms under PM's new AI strategy
May is expected to say that late diagnosis of "otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths" . This early diagnosis, he said could lead to early as well as individualized treatment that could save lives.
