Amazon employees are reportedly gearing up to confront CEO Jeff Bezos at an all-staff meeting this week about selling facial recognition software to law enforcement (AMZN)

pulse

November 6, 2018 7:05 PM

Workers petitioned the Amazon CEO in the past to stop selling Rekognition software to police, but employees will reportedly ramp up pressure this week.

Amazon
selling its facial recognition software
Recode reports
hundreds of Amazon employees have petitioned
Palantir

At an all-staff meeting later this week, Amazon employees will reportedly take further steps to confront CEO Jeff Bezos over the company's controversial sales of its facial recognition software to police and immigration authorities.

Recode reports that Amazon workers are planning to flood Amazon executives with enough questions about its dealings with law enforcement that leadership won't be able to ignore the issue. The meeting, which will be livestreamed to employees globally, is scheduled for Thursday.

(Read more: )

"Wn Amazon employee wrote in an email to colleagues obtained by Recode.

This organized movement is being headed by a group of Amazon employees who have been outspoken in criticizing the company's artificial intelligence software called Rekognition, according to internal emails obtained by Recode.

Amazon has prided Rekognition as a facial recognition tool that can make IDs for the purposes of "

Hundreds of employees have petitioned Bezos in the past to stop the practice. In a letter from June, workers demanded Amazon stop selling Rekognition to the police, and to take measures toward further accountability and transparency. Employees also urged the company to cut ties with Palantir, a data company who is known to provide software to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its deportation and tracking program.

Amazon isn't the only company to see its employees protest dealings with the U.S. government. After workers at Google condemned its employer for participating in a government program called Project Maven, the company said in June it would not renew its contract with the military. Similar movements have taken place at other tech companies, like Microsoft and Salesforce.

Recode reports that Amazon has yet to issue a formal reply to employees who petitioned the company back in June. However, Bezos has defended the dealings of Amazon, and other tech companies, with federal authorities. At a conference last month, Bezos said Amazon would "continue to support" the U.S. government.

pulse

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng