Democrats in Congress lashed out at Amazon Thursday following a report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that found the company’s facial recognition technology misidentified 28 members of Congress and was significantly less accurate when analyzing people of color.
“Law enforcement should not use this technology until the onerous civil rights and civil liberties issues are confronted and accuracy is guaranteed,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said in a statement. “If industry wants to engage in the public sphere, it needs to make the public good, not profit, a top priority.”
Lewis and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Thursday requesting a meeting over the technology, expressing concern that the internet giant is providing it to law enforcement agencies.
Another group of Democrats — Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.), Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (Calif.) — sent a letter to Bezos demanding answers about its “Rekognition” technology and sales to law enforcement.
