Microsoft says it won’t sell facial recognition tech to police, either

Microsoft President Brad Smith announced in a livestreamed conversation with the Washington Post Thursday that the company does not, and would not, sell facial recognition technology to police departments. 

There is, of course, a qualification: Microsoft will not sell facial recognition tech to police until Congress passes regulations around use of the technology to protect human rights.

“We will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology,” Smith said.

Microsoft’s announcement follows similar statements from Amazon and IBM. Amazon said it would put a one-year moratorium on selling its Rekognition software to police departments, in order to allow Congress time to pass legislation governing the use of its tech. However, the announcement was light on specifics. The company did not provide information on what’s happening with its existing partnerships with police departments, which it has vehemently defended as just and responsible in the past.

IBM, on the other hand, committed to getting out of the facial recognition game altogether, pointing out the inherent bias against minorities often built into these systems, and the tech’s potential to impinge on civil liberties.

Microsoft’s stance seems to fall somewhere in the middle. Unlike Amazon, it says it doesn’t already sell the tech to police departments. It also specifically calls for regulations “grounded in human rights.” However, unlike IBM, it is still invested in the business of tracking our faces.

States and cities have started regulating facial recognition, and Congress began working on some bipartisan legislation in January, although the legislation hasn’t surfaced since. A February 2020 report indicated that some Republicans were supporting the tech, particularly its adoption by departments like Homeland Security. 

Microsoft and Amazon have previously called on Congress to regulate facial recognition. However, tech has a long history of supporting some regulation in order to avoid harsher regulation in the future. 

The debate around facial recognition has come to the forefront after weeks of protests against the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racism in policing. The moves by tech to limit the surveillance tools it gives to police is one way of showing support for the movement. Building racial equality in tech itself would be another.