Amazon pitches facial recognition to US immigration authorities to monitor immigrants

Amazon.com Inc. in June pitched its facial recognition technology -- which can identify people from surveillance footage using image databases -- as a tool for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, showing that Amazon continued to push the software to law enforcement agencies as criticism swirled from the company’s workforce and civil liberties groups.

Employees in the Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit met with the federal agency in California to present its artificial intelligence tools, according to emails obtained by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.

Those tools include Rekognition, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos. The software enables law enforcement to track individuals from cameras in public places. The American Civil Liberties Union in May criticized the use of the technology by police departments in Oregon and Florida, saying it threatened civil rights.

News that the technology is being considered by federal immigration officials was reported earlier Tuesday by The Daily Beast.

Amazon shared details about Rekognition and other tools at a “boot camp” sponsored by McKinsey & Co. and attended by other technology companies, an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement.

“As we usually do, we followed up with customers who were interested in learning more about how to use our services,” the spokeswoman said. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement was one of those organizations where there was follow-up discussion.”