Wrong side of privacy

Technology giants, including Amazon and Google, are accustomed to maintaining a certain level of secrecy. But that’s not going to work when it comes to the growing amount of work they do for and with public agencies. Amazon’s facial recognition system, called Rekognition, became very public this week.

Amazon has been providing the technology, along with consulting services, to law enforcement agencies in Florida and Oregon, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California under a Freedom of Information Act request.

“In the past, Amazon has opposed secret government surveillance,” wrote the ACLU in a letter to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive. “But Amazon’s Rekognition product runs counter to those values . ... Amazon Rekognition is primed for abuse in the hands of governments.”

Facial recognition technology is not new. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies have used it for years in overseas conflicts; many of the technology companies who provide it are security contractors.

But Amazon is one of the first big technology companies to offer the service. The company’s scale — and the fact that it’s encouraging domestic law enforcement agencies to use the technology — certainly merits an increased level of scrutiny.

There are also problems with the technology itself. Many facial recognition systems have notoriously high error rates for women and people of color.

These failures can translate directly into more stops, arrests and other law enforcement contacts for people who are already marginalized in society.

Through a spokesperson,

Amazon said in a statement: “Amazon requires that customers comply with the law and be responsible when they use AWS (Amazon Web Services) ... Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology.”

The public deserves a better response than this.

Meanwhile, Google’s own employees are confronting the company over its participation in Project Maven, a drone surveillance project with the U.S. Department of Defense.

More than 4,000 Google employees have signed a letter asking the company to stop assisting the Defense Department in developing a drone program based on artificial intelligence. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” the letter reads.

Google has stood by its participation in Project Maven, even as more than a dozen employees reportedly quit over the matter.

The internet is the product of DARPA, an agency within the Department of Defense, and Silicon Valley’s history is deeply connected to origins within the military and the idea of enforcing law.

But Amazon and Google aren’t military experiments anymore. They’re public companies, and they must answer to the public when it comes to creating products with the potential to cause harm.