(Apologies for Cross-posting)
<br>
<br>Invitation to Sign an Open Letter from Academics and Researchers to Amazon
<br>
<br>Amazon
<br>workers
<br>have come out against Rekognition, an AI-driven face recognition
<br>technology offered through Amazon's AWS cloud service. This type of
<br>low-cost face recognition technology
<br>threatens
<br>to make every individual identifiable in any private or public space
<br>with cameras, and opens up a host of severe threats to civil
<br>liberties and human rights. The workers have been
<br>joined
<br>by Amazon shareholders, and
<br>a
<br>coalition of over 70 civil rights and human rights groups.
<br>
<br>While Rekognition is not (yet) a military application, it is being
<br>sold to police departments, and US Immigration and Customs
<br>Enforcement, and Amazon provides essential cloud services (with
<br>embedded AI features) also to the
<br>Palantir company which
<br>in turn provides AI services to police departments and the US
<br>military, including an
<br>$879M
<br>contract for the US Army's new intelligence IT system.
<br>
<br>Amazon's
<br>response to these protests has been weak, saying people shouldn't use
<br>its Amazon Rekognition software illegally, but offering no mechanism
<br>for oversight as to how their services are used.
<br>
<br>And so we are asking you to sign on to an Open Letter to Amazon
<br>management, calling on them to stop providing their Rekognition
<br>system to governments and law enforcement, to stop providing AI cloud
<br>services to companies that provide such services to police
<br>departments and militaries, including Palantir, and to establish
<br>ethical guidelines and transparency and accountability measures for
<br>the AI services that they do provide.
<br>
<br>You can read the full letter and add your signature here:
<br>
<br>https://www.icrac.net/open-letter-to-amazon-against-police-and-government-use-of-rekognition/
<br>
<br>Sincerely,
<br>
<br>Peter Asaro, Kelly Gates, Woodrow Hartzog, Lilly Irani, Evan
<br>Selinger, and Lucy Suchman
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>______________________________________
<br>
<br>Peter M. Asaro, PhD | THE NEW SCHOOL
<br>ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
<br>DIRECTOR OF THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MEDIA STUDIES
<br>SCHOOL OF MEDIA STUDIES
<br>THE NEW SCHOOL
<br>79 5th Avenue, Room 1619, New York, NY 10003, USA
<br>p | 212 229 8903 x 3902, asarop@newschool.edu
<br>f | 212 229 5357
<br>The New School
<br>
<br>asarop@newschool.edu
<br>www.peterasaro.org
<br>@PeterAsaro
<br>
<br>AFFILIATE SCHOLAR
<br>CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
<br>STANFORD LAW
<br>SCHOOL
<br>
<br>AFFILIATE MEMBER
<br>4TU CENTRE FOR ETHICS AND TECHNOLOGY
<br>UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE
<br>_______________________________________________
<br>EASST's Eurograd mailing list
<br>Eurograd (at) lists.easst.net
<br>Unsubscribe or edit subscription options: http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net
<br>
<br>Meet us via https://twitter.com/STSeasst
<br>
<br>Report abuses of this list to Eurograd-owner@lists.easst.net
view formatted text
