Microsoft joins rivals in banning sales of facial recognition tech to police
- Amazon and IBM have also refused to sell the technology to police in the wake of the widespread Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the US
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Microsoft on Thursday joined its Big Tech rivals in announcing it would not sell its facial recognition tools to law enforcement agencies in the absence of government regulations.
Microsoft president Brad Smith told a Washington Post event that the company has not sold its technology to police in the United States and would maintain that policy until there are laws in place “grounded in human rights”.
The comments followed similar moves by Amazon and International Business Machines and came as activists press tech firms to curb deployment of tech tools that may be used to discriminate against minorities.
“We will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology,” Smith told the event.
Amazon pauses police use of its facial recognition tech for a year
“The bottom line for us is to protect the human rights of people as this technology is deployed.”
Microsoft in 2018 announced it would institute a series of principles before deploying facial recognition technology, including “fairness,” non-discrimination and lawful surveillance.
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Anti-racism and police brutality protests sparked by death of George Floyd continue around the globe
The moves by tech firms come amid widespread protests over police brutality and concerns that facial recognition technology is flawed, especially in analysing features of African-Americans.
Activists also say the technology tools may use algorithms which discriminate, intentionally or not, against blacks.
