Democrats Demand Info On Law Enforcement's Use of Amazon Facial Recognition Tool (thehill.com) 54
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday saying that the company's previous explanations to Congress about its Rekognition software were inadequate. Democratic lawmakers expressed concern about the potential threat the technology poses to civil liberties in the hands of police. "Facial recognition technology may one day serve as a useful tool for law enforcement officials working to protect the American public and keep us safe," the letter reads. "However, at this time, we have serious concerns that this type of product has significant accuracy issues, places disproportionate burdens on communities of color, and could stifle Americans' willingness to exercise their First Amendment rights in public." In the letter on Thursday, the Democratic members requested that Amazon provide them with results from accuracy tests of the Rekognition software. They also asked again for information on their government clients and if they audited law enforcement's use of facial recognition to ensure that its not being employed in violation of civil rights law. "Customer trust, privacy, and security are our top priorities at AWS," Michael Punke, Amazon's vice president for global public policy, wrote in response. "We have long been committed to working with federal and state legislatures to modernize outdated laws to enhance the privacy and security of our customers by preventing law enforcement from accessing data without a warrant."
Michael (Score:1)
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Problem is that we have too many laws against victimless crimes like jaywalking, smoking pot, having a beer under 21, and too many scum who are willing to put on a uniform and enforce them without any sort of flexibility.
Get rid of laws against victimless crimes, THEN maybe we can talk about giving bullies in blue more power. Till then, enforcement is best done inefficiently.
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I recently bid on a contract for public street cameras... I have loads of experience in the healthcare industry where audit trails are a huge deal, so I played up the regulatory vigor of our systems including every query to the facial rec portion... they went instead with the (more expensive less featured) system that has no audit trail.
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Law enforcement is not being done any more inefficiently than friendly fire in Afghanistan or Iraq (insert all wars).
Statistics demands imperfection.
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The cost of emergency medical care. The cost of car insurance for everyone. The cost to a city to keep streets clean and free of waste and trash.
Once a city gets a reputation as criminal, filled with trash and corrupt then new investment stops.
Trashed lined streets, waste in the open, vandalism, open drug use, tent cities and crime do not attract jobs.
The "'victims" are the people who ha
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The tax collected to clean up the results will use up all collected tax. The health costs of related medical conditions. The workers needed to clean the streets every day.
The new tax rate will make anyone with money move to another state, city to escape further city tax increases.
The city then needs more money to clean streets as more trash and was
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What kind of crimes? How much property damage to what cost of repair is still not a "crime"?
Who pays for such proper damage? The city? The owner? The people in a community who pay for a service from that business pay extra to cover the result of decades crime?
How party political should police get with their policing and reporting of crimes?
How sick should workers trying to get to work every day get when moving around a city?
Whats a low count of ve
Re: Well... (Score:1)
Youre not entirely wrong. The police in my area are pretty good people, generally (I live in a rural are). My truck broke down when I was in high school once and an officer hopped under the hood with me to fix it. My brother is currently a state police officer.
All that said, there is some seriously messed up racial stuff going on in many areas, and have a militarized police force is unacceptable. We dont even have a swat unit in my county, but crime is pretty low.
Police have advanced tech (Score:2)
The criminal will get caught and the community is made safe.
Seen by CCTV and reported. Identified. Less illegal migrants using city/state/federal services that US tax payers pay for.
Less crime and the community is cleaned up. Investment returns and good people get well paying jobs.
Clean streets without trash and junk. No parked RV. No tent cities. No trash blocking streets. No open drug use.
Good communities can get on with educ
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The real criminals are often the ones in law enforcement and in the courts. Civil forfeiture abuse, excessive bail, excessive sentences to bully people into plea bargains that are lucrative for the jurisdictions.
But if you're really that much of a fucking coward and desire a perfectly sterile society, go move to Singapore.
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Let the police have the tools and powers to clean up a community so it can be a nice place to work and live in.
No more criminals allowed to move around freely and commit crime for decades. Less tax to pay for the results of their crimes. Thats more investment money in a community.
Got a civil forfeiture problem? Vote for different officials.
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To tell their skilled workers they will have to step around trash and waste to get to work?
That their educated workers will have to face a rising crime rate to and from work?
That tax rates will rise again due to the costs of trash, waste and crime?
If "voter suppression" was real it would see a change of government?
Who would vote again and again for a government who allows crime, trash
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The costs of vandalism that local business has to pay for?
Police do not waste their limited budgets and time doing "profiled and searched" in low crime areas.
Police now have real time maps and GUI software to show areas of a city that have "crime". Lots of crime all day and night.
Thats the part of a city police stay in to find lots of criminals. The profile fits on average so police know to s
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Thats why a city wide profile works so well. Lots of police in an area they know is going to need support.
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I'm sorry you're so scared. Who hurt you?
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You think the cops don't know the identity of people living in tent cities? They drive up, and see them keep shooting. The system cannot absorb them. It costs more to keep someone in prison than to just give them food and let them die on the street. Hell, it costs more to keep someone in prison then just give them a place to live, food and medicine too.
Maybe it could end muggings, but living in a panopticon seems like a pretty high price to pay. Oh, wait, masks exist.
Further, it's pretty obvious this wi
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Drug addicts, trash, waste. Tent cities and parked RV. A crime rate in parts of city areas.
To keep on using the same politics will just result in more crime, more waste, more junk, more blocked streets.
The city areas need new investment. That needs crime to stop. The waste and trash to be cleaned. Vandalism to stop.
Utilities have to be upgraded. That might bring in new investment and some tax revenue from profitable busines
Republicans object because ... (Score:2)
... it's their face.
Look, people are getting tagged as apes... (Score:2)
Lies. (Score:3)
"Customer trust, privacy, and security are our top priorities at AWS," Michael Punk
This is a lie. None of those thing are priorities if it does not turn a profit. Only AFTER they can make a profit are any of those things considered a priority.
Just remember kids, global corporations only care about getting your money. The fact that you are involved in the process is entirely secondary.
Liberals my ass. (Score:2)
What the fuck about top-down, authoritarian controlled, dystopian panopticon government is "liberal"?
Yet that's what these dumbasses are touting...
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Sorry, but both the left and the right have their authoritarian assholes. Being pro-dictatorship doesn't mean that you aren't liberal, for many current uses of the word.
The actual fact is that every political party is run by people who want to control other people, including the Libertarians. Listening to their rhetoric will usually reveal this, but sometimes you need to watch their actions. And this isn't happenstance, it's because those who don't want power don't seek power. So left, right, liberal, c
let's read between the lines (Score:2)
"However, at this time, we have serious concerns that this type of product has significant accuracy issues, places disproportionate burdens on communities of color, and could stifle Americans' willingness to exercise their First Amendment rights in public."
As usual, if not for hypocrisy and propaganda they'd have nothing at all.
The letter goes on to specifically mention concern about immigration enforcement using this technology. Well, doesn't this dovetail nicely with opposition to voter ID and enacting 'sanctuary' states, and calls to abolish immigration enforcement entirely.
Doing the right thing, but for all the wrong reasons. Chess is not played for the sake of pawns like Molly Tibbets. Maintaining respect for the rule of law, and equal protection th