Amazon face ID tool misidentified members of Congress as suspects

Amazon's facial recognition tool, Rekognition, wrongly identified 28 members of Congress as police suspects during a test conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union, the organization said Thursday. Amazon issued a statement saying the company objects to the level of accuracy settings used in its face ID tool during the test. ACLU officials maintain that the findings still highlight the risks that individuals could face if police use the technology in certain ways to catch criminals. Since May, the ACLU and other civil rights groups have pressured Amazon to stop selling governments access to the powerful image ID software, which was unveiled in 2016 by the company's cloud-computing division and has since been marketed to web developers. The groups cited use of Rekognition by law enforcement in Oregon and Florida and warned that the tool could be used to target immigrants and people of color unfairly.