BOSTON (WHDH) - Politicians and the American Civil Liberties Union are now calling on Amazon to stop selling their facial recognition software after it misidentified 28 members of Congress as criminals.
Massachusetts senator Ed Markey was among the many politicians that were misidentified as a criminal on Friday when the ACLU tested Amazon’s latest facial recognition software.
The software matches faces to arrest photos.
“This facial recognition technology is obviously greatly flawed,” Markey said. “It can’t be introduced into American society when congressmen and senators are misidentified as potential criminals.”
The ACLU is now demanding that Amazon stop selling this software and that Congress place a “moratorium” on this until a conversation can be had regarding regulation and usage.
Kade Crockford, a representative for the Massachusetts ACLU said, “We would actually like the Massachusetts state legislature to pass a law banning the use of this technology in law enforcement.”
In response, Amazon released a statement asking users to allow for a 5 percent margin of error.
The ACLU does not believe that the software is currently being used in law enforcement or airports in Massachusetts.
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