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Missouri Congressman Joins Calls for Transparency in Amazon’s Facial Recognition Deals with Police

Missouri congressman Emanuel Cleaver has joined the growing number of public figures to demand technology and retail giant Amazon reveal more details about how its facial recognition tool, AWS Rekognition, is being used by law enforcement.

In a joint letter with representative Keith Ellison, Cleaver, a democrat who serves the Kansas City area in the U.S. House of Representatives, demanded Amazon release a list of law enforcement organizations using the service, which can identify and track individual people’s faces over time.

Cleaver and Ellison cited concerns over facial recognition software’s historic ineffectiveness for racial minorities, as well as the potential for constant surveillance from devices like police body cameras.

Earlier this week, a blog post from the American Civil Liberties Union alleged Amazon intentionally turned a blind eye to their service’s “capacity for abuse,” while simultaneously taking in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from organizations including the City of Orlando and Washington County, Oregon police departments.

Nathan Lawrence is an editor, documentary filmmaker and data journalist.