Over 150,000 Petitioners Demand Amazon Halt Police Facial Recognition Sales
A coalition of civil rights groups delivers more than 150,000 signatures to Amazon's headquarters, urging the company to stop selling its Rekognition face surveillance technology to police. The campaigners warn that the cheap, accessible tool enables dangerous mass tracking of everyday citizens.
A coalition of civil rights, religious, and community organizations delivers over 150,000 petition signatures to Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, demanding that the company stop selling facial recognition technology to police. The protesters also present a coalition letter signed by nearly 70 organizations and a formal letter from Amazon shareholders. This organized effort represents a major nationwide campaign to prevent the spread of government face surveillance before it becomes widely adopted across the country.
Internal documents obtained by the ACLU reveal that Amazon aggressively markets its Rekognition surveillance tool to law enforcement agencies and actively helps them deploy it. Because Amazon utilizes its massive Web Services cloud system, it offers this powerful software at a very low cost, making it easy for even small-town police departments to track people in their daily lives. The technology even allows governments to rewind time to see where individuals have been, who they associate with, and what activities they are doing.
Despite this massive public pushback, Amazon defends its actions by claiming that customers must follow the law and that the company is unaware of any reported abuses by law enforcement. Critics argue this stance essentially allows the unchecked use of mass surveillance tools that disproportionately threaten communities of color, immigrants, and protesters. Without strict monitoring or transparency from Amazon, advocates warn that the company is paving the way for a ubiquitous surveillance state.