Should Amazon be able to sell the company's facial recognition technology to police and government agencies? The question may come down to a shareholders' vote later this spring.
On Thursday, a group of Amazon investors said it filed a resolution to put the matter up for vote at the company's annual shareholders meeting. Their goal: To prevent the company's facial recognition system from ever being exploited for mass surveillance.
The resolution calls on Amazon's board of directors to halt all facial recognition system sales to government agencies until it can conclude the technology poses no threat to civil and human rights.
The resolution was partly sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, which is a member of a Roman Catholic investment group, the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment.
"We filed this proposal because we are concerned that Amazon has pitched facial recognition technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and piloted its Rekognition with police departments, without fully assessing potential human rights impacts," said Sister Patricia Mahoney of St. Joseph of Brentwood in a statement. Four other shareholder groups have also backed the proposal.
But it isn't the first time shareholders have expressed worries over the tech giant's facial recognition technology. Last June, several investors sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding he introduce safeguards to rein in the technology before it can be sold to government buyers.
Both civil rights groups and even Amazon's own employees have also spoken up in protest against the company's facial recognition technology, citing the same mass surveillance fears. But so far, Amazon hasn't backed down from selling the technology to governments. In its defense, the company has repeatedly pointed to real-life cases of police officers and investigators using Amazon's facial recognition systems to stop crimes.
"This technology is being implemented in ways that materially benefit society, and we have received no indications of misuse," an Amazon spokesperson told PCMag.
The company's Rekognition product can let you search through a database of photos and pluck out the images that match a particular face. This can be a powerful tool for law enforcement when it comes to criminal investigations. For instance, Amazon's system can scour the internet to see if anyone has uploaded a new photo of an abducted person. It can also be used to examine hours of surveillance footage to find the presence of a criminal suspect.
But on the flip side, critics worry that the same technology will make mistakes, especially when it comes to identifying people of color. Another concern is the potential for abuse, like tracking you without your consent, and whether Amazon has the ability to stop it.
"It's a familiar pattern: a leading tech company marketing what is hailed as breakthrough technology without understanding or assessing the many real and potential harms of that product," said Michael Connor, the executive director of the activist group Open MIC, which helped organize the shareholder resolution.
It isn't clear if Amazon will try to oppose the shareholders' vote. But in the past, the company has said any misuse of its facial recognition technology for illegal activities, such as violating the rights of others, will result in a ban.