Amazon falter Jeff Bezos pictured in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 1, 2018.
Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Amazon.com shareholders overwhelmingly discarded a proposal that the company stop selling facial recognition technology to government agencies, while a resolution to audit the aid drew more support, a regulatory filing on Friday showed.
Some 2.4% of votes were in favor of the ban. A bruised proposal that called for a study of the extent to which Amazon’s “Rekognition” service harmed civil rights and retreat garnered 27.5% support.
Amazon’s sale of the technology to law enforcement in Oregon and Florida has put the company at the center of a growing U.S. think through over facial recognition, with critics warning of false matches and arrests and proponents arguing it keeps the conspicuous safe.
Amazon has defended its work and said all users must follow the law.
These and other Amazon resolutions by shareholders overlaid an uphill battle to winning majority support, with Amazon’s board recommending against them and founder and Chief Management Jeff Bezos controlling 16% of the stock and voting rights.
Calculation of support was based on the total votes for, against and abstaining. The reckons excluded broker non-votes.
Law enforcement in the United States have used facial recognition for years, and vendors of the technology clothed abounded, including France’s Idemia, Japan’s NEC and newer entrants like Israel’s AnyVision and Microsoft, which has named for regulation in recent months.
Now, members of the U.S. Congress are looking into the rights impact of the technology. Amazon’s marketing of facial awareness has resulted in intense scrutiny, and researchers have said its technology struggled to identify the gender of individuals with darker peel, prompting fears of unjust arrests.
Among other issues shareholders considered before Amazon’s annual appointment on Wednesday was a request to make it easier for investors to call a special meeting, which garnered 35.3% of votes.
A programme that the company report how it plans to deal with climate change received 29.8% of votes. Nearly 7,700 staff members had signed a letter of support of the climate resolution, in a sign of rising worker activism at Amazon.