Angela Lang / CNET
Microsoft will not sell its facial recognition software to the police and law enforcement agencies until federal regulations for facial recognition technology are in place, President Brad Smith told the Washington Post in an interview Thursday morning. The move follows nationwide protests against police brutalityand similar steps from Amazon and IBM in relation to facial recognition systems.
“The bottom line for us is protecting human rights when using this technology,” Smith told Post, adding that the company has not yet sold the technology to law enforcement agencies.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Consumer lawyers and civil rights groups have long warned of facial recognition technologies, particularly those related to the police. Two years ago, the ACLU started calling technology giants stop delivering the technology to governments and law enforcement agencies, on the grounds that this poses a potential threat, especially for immigrants and colored people. Last year, Microsoft tacitly shut down an extensive facial recognition database made up of more than 10 million images collected from the Internet. after the database was linked to the Chinese government’s crackdown on ethnic Muslims.