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FBI tests out Amazon’s controversial facial recognition system as a way to catch criminals – Daily Mail


The FBI is trialing Amazon’s controversial facial recognition system to try and catch criminals in surveillance videos, report claims

  • The FBI is reportedly piloting Amazon’s controversial facial recognition software
  • Rekognition expected to help speed up the FBI’s process of reviewing footage
  • The software has been widely criticized by human rights groups like the ACLU 

The FBI is trialing Amazon’s controversial facial recognition tech, Rekognition, as a new method to catch criminals. 

It began working with the agency in early 2018, according to Nextgov

Rekognition is expected to help speed up the FBI’s process of going through video surveillance footage that’s collected during investigations.

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The FBI is trialing Amazon's controversial facial recognition tech, Rekognition, as a new method to catch criminals. It reportedly began working with the agency in early 2018

The FBI is trialing Amazon’s controversial facial recognition tech, Rekognition, as a new method to catch criminals. It reportedly began working with the agency in early 2018

The technology could prove to be especially helpful during time-sensitive counterterrorism investigations. 

Nextgov pointed to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, wherein FBI agents had to sift through huge amounts of data from cellphones and surveillance footage. 

‘We had agents and analysts, eight per shift, working 24/7 for three weeks going through the video footage of everywhere Stephen Paddock was the month leading up to him coming and doing the shooting,’ Christine Halvorsen, FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism, said at Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent Conference, according to Nextgov.

Halvorsen added that Rekognition would have been able to parse through data from the Las Vegas shooting in just 24 hours vs. the weeks it took via human labor. 

While there, Halvorsen also detailed how the FBI is using Amazon’s cloud services to aid in counterterrorism investigations. 

It’s not the only government contract Amazon holds. 

Rekognition is expected to help speed up the FBI's process of going through video surveillance footage that's collected during investigations, especially counterrorism efforts

Rekognition is expected to help speed up the FBI’s process of going through video surveillance footage that’s collected during investigations, especially counterrorism efforts

Amazon Web Services also counts the Department of Defense as the CIA as its customers, while Rekognition is believed to be used within several law enforcement agencies around the country. 

At one time, that included the city of Orlando, but the city later ended its contract after human rights organizations called out its potential threats to civil liberties. 

The tech giant has repeatedly drawn the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other privacy advocates over the tool.

First released in 2016, Amazon has since been selling it on the cheap to several police departments around the US, listing the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon as one of several customers. 

The ACLU and other organizations are now calling on Amazon to stop marketing the product to law enforcement, saying they could use the technology to ‘easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone’.  

Amazon offers the technology to law enforcement for just $6 (£4.50) to $12 (£9) a month. So far, the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon and the city of Orlando were customers

Amazon offers the technology to law enforcement for just $6 (£4.50) to $12 (£9) a month. So far, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon and the city of Orlando were customers

HOW DOES AMAZON’S CONTROVERSIAL RECKOGNITION TECHNOLOGY WORK?

Amazon Rekognition gives software applications the power to detect objects, scenes and faces within images.

It was built with computer vision, which lets AI programs analyse still and video images.

AI systems rely on artificial neural networks, which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn.

They can be trained to recognise patterns in information – including speech, text data, or visual images.

Rekognition uses deep learning neural network models to analyse billions of images daily.

Updates since it was created even allow the technology to guess a person’s age.

In November 2017, its creators announced that Rekognition can now detect and recognise text in images, perform real-time face recognition across tens of millions of faces and detect up to 100 faces in challenging crowded photos.

Police appear to be using Rekognition to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail. 

But privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing police to identify and track people in real time. 

Amazon offers the technology to law enforcement for just $6 (£4.50) to $12 (£9) a month.       

Deputies in Oregon had been using Rekognition about 20 times per day – for example, to identify burglary suspects in store surveillance footage.

In September, the agency adopted policies governing its use, noting that officers in the field can use real-time face recognition to identify suspects who are unwilling or unable to provide their own ID, or if someone’s life is in danger. 



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