THREAD: @ACLU_NorCal tested Amazon’s facial recognition product Rekognition and it falsely matched 28 Members of Congress with mugshot photos. Here’s how we did it and what we found. aclu.org/blog/privacy-t… 1/ 
First we loaded 25,000 public arrest photos into Rekognition. Then asked Rekognition to compare the faces of current members of Congress against those mugshot photos at Amazon's default match setting. The results were striking. 2/
Rekognition returned 28 false matches that include Republicans and Democrats, legislators of all ages, and people from across the country. We ran this test multiple times and had it verified by an independent expert. 3/
Members of Congress of color were disproportionately falsely identified in our test. Congress is around 20% people of color, but members of color were nearly 40% of false matches. 4/
Facial recognition identifications—accurate or not—could cost lives. Presenting arrest information to officers in the field invites assumptions about criminality and could turn interactions violent. In the hands of law enforcement, face recognition is downright dangerous. 5/
Our test is not hypothetical. Sheriff’s deputies in Washington County, Oregon are using a Rekognition-powered mobile app TODAY to identify people in arrest photos. 6/ aclu.org/blog/privacy-t…
The errors in our test raise grave concerns that current face-surveillance technology is flawed, biased, and dangerous. That’s why the @ACLU is calling on Congress to adopt a moratorium on the law enforcement use of facial recognition tech. 7/ aclu.org/news/aclu-comm…
Amazon also has a responsibility to act. Amazon should be listening to employees, shareholders, customers, members of congress, academics, and almost 70 civil-rights organizations sounding the alarm about face surveillance. 8/ aclu.org/blog/privacy-t…
It’s particularly troubling that throughout the process of running our test, Amazon never made clear what uses of face recognition were acceptable or safe. Not once.
TL; DR: Amazon’s approach to monitoring its government customers: 🙈🙉🙊
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TL; DR: Amazon’s approach to monitoring its government customers: 🙈🙉🙊
9/
Face recognition is different. Congress needs to step in and enact a moratorium on the use of face surveillance by governments. /end
P.S. Big thanks to @realjoshkroll for independently verifying the results of our test.
Clarified graphic to replace the one above. Nearly 40% of the false matches were people of color, compared with 20% in Congress overall.
