In the News

Amazon's move to stop providing facial recognition to law enforcement until June 2021 has left more questions than answers. The company's announcement, limited to 102 words in a blog post, left out a lot of details on what the moratorium actually means, and a House representative is demanding answers from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In a letter sent to Bezos and Amazon on Wednesday, Rep.… Read more »

A member of the House of Representatives who was misidentified as a criminal in an experiment using Amazon’s facial recognition software told the company its recent announcement of a one-year moratorium on police use of the technology “raises more questions than answers.”  Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this week where he raised questions about… Read more »

Sometimes, you just have to call BS. That appears to be the thinking of California Congressman Jimmy Gomez, who on June 17 shared a letter addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding specifics on his company's supposed year-long moratorium on providing its facial-recognition tools to police. Because when it comes to Amazon's big June 10 announcement, sadly there is no… Read more »

Amazon may have halted the sale of its facial recognition software to police, but the move hasn’t eased pressure on the tech giant. In a letter sent to its CEO Jeff Bezos on Tuesday, Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif) blasted Amazon’s handling of its software, Rekognition, calling on the company to provide detailed info about privacy and bias inherent in the program. Amazon… Read more »

Last week, Amazon made a terse announcement that it would institute a “one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology,” known as Rekognition, in response to the wave of global protests against police brutality spurred by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At least one lawmaker is unsatisfied by the company’s limp new… Read more »

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Jeff Bezos Wednesday pressing the Amazon CEO for information about the company's one-year moratorium on selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement. The e-commerce giant announced last week that its facial recognition tech, Rekognition, will not be sold directly to police for the next 12 months. The… Read more »

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Tuesday asking questions about exactly how the company plans to implement a one-year moratorium on facial recognition sales to police. Amazon announced the moratorium in a brief blog post one week ago today. Rep. Gomez is vice chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which plans to introduce… Read more »

That technology, known as Rekogntiion, has long drawn the ire of racial justice groups and civil liberties advocates, who claim it is biased against black people and should not be sold to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. “Corporations have been quick to share expressions of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the public outrage over the murders of Black… Read more »

The issue has played out for years in the Los Angeles communities Congressman Jimmy Gomez represents. Activists regularly object to the use of technology that has the potential to exacerbate racial bias. Now, it has exploded anew on the national stage in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. Gomez, who sits on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told Politico last… Read more »

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, told POLITICO he’s drafting legislation separate from the committee’s work that focuses on local and state law enforcement use of the software, instead of federal use. He says that while he supports the broader Democratic package on police reform, the Justice in Policing Act, it alone won’t address his and other… Read more »