Amazon Sells Facial Recognition Software to Law Enforcement, ICE

Amazon, a leading researcher in big data analysis, has sold their facial recognition service, Amazon Web Services Rekognition, to U.S. law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

While it is not clear whether Amazon’s infrastructure is deployed at the Mexican border family separation sites, it is being used to aid the agency. Amazon employees are protesting internally, and wrote a collective letter to CEO Jeff Bezos demanding an end to Amazon’s ICE contract:

This will be another powerful tool for the surveillance state, and ultimately serve to harm the most marginalized

Additional coverage by CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

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Posted 7/2/18