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posted by janrinok on Wednesday May 23 2018, @01:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-were-warned dept.

Amazon is selling police departments a real-time facial recognition system

Documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California have shed new light on Rekognition, Amazon's little-known facial recognition project. Rekognition is currently used by police in Orlando and Oregon's Washington County, often using nondisclosure agreements to avoid public disclosure. The result is a powerful real-time facial recognition system that can tap into police body cameras and municipal surveillance systems.

According to further reporting by The Washington Post, the Washington County Sheriff pays between $6 and $12 a month for access to Rekognition, which allows the department to scan mug shot photos against real-time footage.

The most significant concerns are raised by the Orlando project, which is capable of running real-time facial recognition on a network of cameras throughout the city. The project was described by Rekognition project director Ranju Das at a recent AWS conference in Seoul. "This is an immediate response use case," Das told the crowd. "There are cameras all over the city [of Orlando]. Authorized cameras are streaming the data to Kinesis video stream.... We analyze that data in real time and search against the collection of faces that they have. Maybe they want to know if the mayor of the city is in a place, or there are persons of interest they want to track."

The price is not a typo. It was described as a "giveaway".

Also at NPR and LA Times (AP).


Original Submission

Related Stories

London to Deploy Live Facial Recognition to Find Wanted Faces in a Crowd 14 comments

London to deploy live facial recognition to find wanted faces in a crowd:

Officials at the Metropolitan Police Service of London announced last Friday that the organization will soon begin to use "Live Facial Recognition" (LFR) technology deployed around London to identify people of interest as they appear in surveillance video and alert officers to their location. The system, based on NEC's NeoFace Watch system, will be used to check live footage for faces on a police "watch list," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.

[...] In Las Vegas, a number of casinos have used facial-recognition systems for decades—not only to spot potential criminals but to also catch "undesirables" such as card counters and others who have been banned from the gaming floors. (I got a first-hand look at some of those early systems back in 2004

[...] private companies' own databases of images have begun to be tapped as well. Amazon's Rekognition system and other facial-recognition services that can process real-time streaming video have been used by police forces in the US as well as for commercial applications

[...] These systems are not foolproof. They depend heavily on the quality of source data and other aspects of the video being scanned. But Ephgrave said that the Metropolitan Police is confident about the system it's deploying—and that it's balancing its deployment with privacy concerns.

[...] Areas under the surveillance of the system will be marked with signs.

Previously:
America Is Turning Against Facial-Recognition Software
ACLU Demonstrates Flaws in Facial Recognition
Amazon and US Schools Normalize Automatic Facial Recognition and Constant Surveillance
Amazon Selling Facial Recognition Systems to Police in Orlando, FL and Washington County, OR


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:55AM (3 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:55AM (#682908) Journal

    so, Amazon is playing catch-up in facial recognition, and needs access to "real-life" testing.
    This way, they can get "proper" beta testing *and* recoup some costs.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:22AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:22AM (#682923)

      Way more than that. They get video feeds across the city. Every type of car, license plate, what stores each person visits, what they're wearing, what people are carrying, trends on brands of shoes in use, traffic analysis, who meets who, which mobile device each person carries, voice prints on everyone, text of conversations (police body cams have audio and so do some public cam systems), etc... They can store all this video and data mine it anytime in the future as the tech gets better.

      Expect an in-person delivery service in a year or two. Order something from Amazon and have it hand delivered to you as you're walking down a street.

      Remember folks, USA did it before China.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @07:44AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @07:44AM (#683000)

        They can store all this video and data mine it anytime in the future as the tech gets better.

        Trends change pretty fast. Having archived video from last year is not going to help much.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:56AM (#682909)

    that's odd

    i was certain that i had been fairly well assured that it could never happen here

    guess they were wrong

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:25AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:25AM (#682926)

    Seriously, if you don't find this situation disquieting, you have either not thought it through or you are incapable of thinking.

    And don't start with the old crap about "If you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about". I have no tolerance for that small-minded bullshit.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:33AM (3 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:33AM (#682970) Journal

      Make it a foil-lined hoodie.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:39PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:39PM (#683162)

        Invisibility Cloak.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:31PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:31PM (#683176)

        takyon. always defending the status quo like a good little slave.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @10:07AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @10:07AM (#683028)

      You have too much time on your hands to think about this stuff.
      And
      It's convenient and if you have nothing to hide...

      Any arguments trying to point out historical trends and just how much more dangerous and capable the people and technology of today are seem to fall on deaf ears. If any of the WW2 generation I knew were still alive, I might try asking them, but since they aren't I can only be left to wonder if the mental faculties left on this planet are not waning.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:45PM (#683163)

        Wait til the divorce lawyers get their hands on the data.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:35PM (#683178)

        yeah, if you bring up concerns about police having more surveillance powers these dumb bootlicking slaves will look at you like you're a terrorist and wondering who they can rat you out to. your own family will do it. just try it out. the whole country(world?) is full of brainwashed slaves and rats.

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:37AM (1 child)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:37AM (#682950) Homepage Journal

    It is a clear violator my right to privacy

    No I won't seek class action status.

    I figure that Amazon's attorney won't show up so I'll win buy default

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:07AM (#682961)

      Apparently, you cannot claim copyright on your "public performances", but other people can.

  • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Wednesday May 23 2018, @08:12AM (2 children)

    by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 23 2018, @08:12AM (#683004)

    Why all the fuss? Amazon never promised not to be evil. It's all about the profits... that and Mr. Bezos does have a whiff of the Bond villain about him; of course he needs surveillance feeds from everywhere.

    --
    Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 23 2018, @09:15AM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday May 23 2018, @09:15AM (#683020) Journal

      Will Blue Origin [wikipedia.org] allow Bezos to live out his You Only Live Twice fantasies?

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Wednesday May 23 2018, @10:37AM

        by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 23 2018, @10:37AM (#683035)

        Well it's all fun and games until one of them builds the Moonraker space station and threatens to deliver death from space.

        Actually now I think about it, deliveries from space can only be one man!

        --
        Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
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