Amazon is marketing its facial identification software system to Florida police departments that are currently partner with its nursing home surveillance company , Ring — arrangements that allow constabulary to request entree to video footage capture by homeowners .
Emailsuncovered by an ABC News investigatory teamin Tampa Bay ( WFTS ) reportedly show that Amazon has been push police departments to adopt its controversial boldness identification software , Rekognition , while also help them grow access to footage take by Ring ’s doorbell cameras via its Neighbors app .
Ring has repeatedly told reporter that neither its devices nor the law enforcement portal through which police request access to Ring footage economic consumption facial realisation . ( “ Ring does not use facial recognition technology , ” a spokesperson tell Gizmodo last month . ) But Ring ’s denial do not appear to rule out the possibility that police may , at some point , obtain doorbell footage and analyze the face in it using a separate Amazon product .
WFTS said it attempted multiple time to meet Ring , which was acquired by Amazon in 2018 , in the week lead up to its write up . The troupe did not respond .
document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) last year showed that Amazon had been hand out its Rekognition pecker to police force free of charge . The group say the engineering science , which researchers and critics callunreliableandracially biased , poses a “ severe menace ” to communities .
https://gizmodo.com/everything-cops-say-about-amazons-ring-is-scripted-or-a-1836812538
“ People should be innocent to take the air down the street without being watch by the government . Facial recognition in American community menace this exemption . In over patrol community of interests of color , it could effectively pass it , ” the ACLU and other radical pen ina letter to the Amazon .
In August , BuzzFeed Newsreportedthat , despite Ring ’s insistence that it does not use facial expression recognition technology , the ship’s company ’s Ukraine branch appeared to be developing a look acknowledgment puppet . A 2018 presentation unearth by reporters even testify that , at least at the time , Ring Ukraine had a “ point of face recognition research ” on staff .
Police department partner with Ring are reach the ability to request footage like a shot from Ring customer , but can not , the company says , get it otherwise without a warrantee . It stay on unclear whether Ring send word customers of warrants , even in cases where the customer is not suspect of a crime . ( Gizmodo has gravel this question to Ring on multiple occasion and received no answer . )
Gizmodo reported in July that Ring ’s contracts with natural law enforcement agencies interdict law from making public command about the party and its productswithout Ring ’s permission . Further Gizmodo reportage found that Ring was seek access toreal - time 911 caller datato use as content for its Neighbors app .
In some cases , Ring has barred police departmentsfrom using the term “ surveillance”to report its products , stating explicitly in one email that doing so “ can sag user privacy concerns . ”
https://gizmodo.com/ring-gave-police-stats-about-users-who-said-no-to-law-e-1837713840
Ring ’s police partnerships have drawn far-flung concern from polite rights governance that say the technology set a threat to privateness and civil shore leave . A coalition of over 30 groups , including Fight for the Future , Media Justice , and Color of Change , signedan open letterlast week calling on local , state , and Union official to enquire Ring ’s business practices .
“ A key element of the partnership twist police department into selling agencies and police force officer into sales representative for Amazon . Amazon provides officers with talk points to push their technology and products to resident physician , and requests departments market the product at metropolis events , ” the letter states .
It continues : “ In the absence seizure of cleared civil liberties and right - protective insurance policy to govern the technologies and the purpose of their data , once compile , stored footage can be used by law enforcement to conduct facial identification searches , target protesters do their First Amendment rights , teenagers for minor drug possession , or shared with other government agency like frappe or the FBI . ”
In a varsity letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last calendar month , Senator Ed Markey , who sit on the Committee on Commerce , Science , and Transportation , wrotethat Ring ’s partnerships “ arouse extra civic liberties headache ” and could enable police to “ create a surveillance web that places dangerous burdens on masses of color and feeds racial anxieties in local residential district . ”
“ I am particularly appall to learn , ” he write , “ that Ring is pursuing facial recognition technology with the potential to ease off certain individuals as suspicious found on their biometric info . ”
[ WFTS Tampa Bay ]
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