AOC Spotlights Privacy Concerns of Facial Recognition

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "So, we have a technology that was created and designed by one demographic that is only mostly effective on that one demographic and they're trying to sell it and impose it on the entirety of the country?"

Concerns over facial recognition technology are set to air on both coasts as lawmakers and shareholders weigh its civil rights implications.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee, in a May 22 hearing, plans to hear from a civil rights group and academics who have studied the technology and its use by police. The hearing comes amid a growing U.S. debate about whether and how law enforcement and the private sector should use the technology.

Government use of the technology “poses potential questions of constitutionality under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments,” the committee said in a statement. “These questions are yet untested as the Supreme Court has not directly ruled upon the constitutionality of police use of facial recognition technology upon citizens.”

Amazon.com Inc. investors will vote at the company’s May 22 annual meeting on two shareholder-submitted proposals related to its facial recognition software, called Rekognition. Under one proposal, shareholders ask the company not to sell Rekognition to government agencies unless the board decides that the technology doesn’t harm civil and human rights. The other would require an independent study to assess if the software risks violating privacy or infringing on civil rights.

The hearing and shareholders’ vote reflect growing scrutiny on facial recognition technology from academics, civil rights groups, and others worried about racial bias, inaccuracies, and the potential for mass surveillance.

So far, policy pushback to the technology, which isn’t federally regulated, has come at the local level. San Francisco officials recently voted to ban the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement and city agencies. Other municipalities in California and Massachusetts are considering similar proposals.

Pressure on Policymakers

“Members of Congress need to hit the pause button on law enforcement use of this dangerous surveillance technology,” Neema Singh Guliani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an emailed statement. Guliani is among the witnesses scheduled to testify before the House panel.

The ACLU is also calling for more transparency on federal agencies’use of facial recognition technology and how companies like Amazon market it to them.

Amazon shareholders’ proposals could add pressure on policymakers to regulate police use of facial recognition technology, Jameson Spivak, a policy associate with Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, said.

“It sends the signal that even Amazon’s own shareholders are wary of the company’s behavior,” he said in an email.

So are some of Amazon’s employees. Last year, more than 450 Amazon employees signed a letter urging the online retail giant’s top executives to stop selling Rekognition to police departments.

Amazon says it hasn’t received any reports of Rekognition’s misuse by law enforcement agencies. In a statement opposing the shareholder proposals, its board highlighted ways the technology has been helpful, from rescuing victims of human trafficking to preventing package theft.

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