Three California representatives are among eight members of Congress who signed a bicameral letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seeking information and answers this week about the company’s Rekognition facial recognition technology.
Based on a customer-provided image or video, the Rekognition application programming interface (API) can identify “objects, people, text, scenes and activities” as well as inappropriate content, the company said in a description of the service, indicating its applicability in a variety of use cases including people counting and public safety.
But legislators including Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-California, and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, expressed their concerns this summer, joining other lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to write the company twice in July to communicate “their alarm about the efficacy and constitutional impact of Amazon Rekognition on communities of color,” Gomez’s office said in a news release.
In the latest letter, dated Nov. 29, three California Democrats — Rep. Judy Chu, Gomez and Rep. Ro Khanna — joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, both D-Illinois; Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia; Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington; and Markey in asking about the product’s accuracy, bias and use. The legislators gave Amazon until Dec. 13 to respond to questions regarding:
• How Amazon tests for accuracy and bias in facial recognition results, particularly for racial bias.
• Whether Rekognition is designed to protect the privacy of “innocent Americans,” and whether it has a way to automatically delete unused biometric data.
• Whether Amazon audits Rekognition use by law enforcement to ensure it’s not being “abused for secretive government surveillance”; that the software doesn’t facilitate systems that “disproportionately impact people based on protected characteristics in potential violation of federal civil rights laws”; that the software is not being used in violation of Amazon’s terms of use; which government customers use Rekognition for “continual, real-time” facial recognition of the public; and whether Rekognition is integrated with police body cameras or public-facing camera networks.
Eric Harris, Gomez’s communications director, said that when the technology is being used “as a means to pursue law enforcement,” accuracy is vital, and lawmakers don’t have clarity on that so far.
“The congressman believes his district is ground zero when it comes to immigration. If this technology is being used on immigration policy or immigration enforcement, we need to know about it,” Harris said. Gomez’s Los Angeles district stretches from Boyle Heights to Eagle Rock; and from Koreatown to City Terrace.
