Technology
Police trial of Amazon facial recognition tech doesn’t seem to be going very well
Amazon’s facial recognition technology, Rekognition, continues to cause controversy.
In documents recently obtained by , we now have a behind-the-scenes look at how Orlando police have been using the technology. After the city let the original pilot program expire after public outcry, Orlando started a second pilot program with an “increased” number of face-scanning cameras.
Amazon’s Rekognition is described broadly as a visual analysis tool. But, deployed by law enforcement, it can scan faces caught on camera and match them against faces in criminal databases. The ACLU called the technology “primed for abuse in the hands of governments” and warned that it “poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants.”
In addition, the documents show that Amazon provided Orlando police with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment needed for the Rekognition program at zero cost. Documents also reveal a “mutual nondisclosure agreement” in order to keep information about the program away from the public.
Orlando police haven’t had an easy time working with Amazon’s face-scanning technology, documents show. They reported a number of flaws with the simplest of mechanics, such as even getting a facial recognition stream to work. The documents also show that Amazon provided little help when it came to teaching police how to set up and operate the Rekognition system.
As of now, Orlando is operating three Rekognition IRIS cameras, which are only scanning for matches of current test volunteers from the Orlando police department.
These documents demonstrate just how poorly Amazon’s facial recognition technology seems to work at this point. In July, the ACLU released a report that claimed Rekognition had misidentified 28 members of Congress as suspected criminals. As we , even though people of color made up only around 20 percent of Congress, they accounted for more than 40 percent of the false positives.
Perhaps Amazon should further evaluate its Rekognition technology before pitching its tech to police departments and government agencies like ICE.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1453039084979896’);
if (window.mashKit) {
mashKit.gdpr.trackerFactory(function() {
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
}).render();
}
-
Business6 days ago
Langdock raises $3M with General Catalyst to help businesses avoid vendor lock-in with LLMs
-
Entertainment6 days ago
What Robert Durst did: Everything to know ahead of ‘The Jinx: Part 2’
-
Entertainment5 days ago
This nova is on the verge of exploding. You could see it any day now.
-
Business5 days ago
India’s election overshadowed by the rise of online misinformation
-
Business5 days ago
This camera trades pictures for AI poetry
-
Business6 days ago
CesiumAstro claims former exec spilled trade secrets to upstart competitor AnySignal
-
Business7 days ago
Internet users are getting younger; now the UK is weighing up if AI can help protect them
-
Business4 days ago
TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK