Why IBM Decided to Halt all Facial Recognition Development

In a letter to congress sent on June 8th, IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna made a bold statement regarding the company's policy toward facial recognition. "IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software," says Krishna. "IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency." The company has halted all facial recognition development and disapproves or any technology that could lead to racial profiling. The ethics of face recognition technology have been in question for years. However, there has been little to no movement in the enactment of official laws barring the technology.