Beware the new military-technology complex

Why big tech working with the Pentagon and law enforcement is so worrisome

Toy soldiers.
(Image credit: Illustrated | KeremYucel/iStock)

People who tuned in to Sky News' livestream of the Royal Wedding over the weekend got a glimpse of the future of technology: An Amazon service called Rekognition was able to identify celebrities' faces via on-screen captions. Can't place that familiar-looking face? Now you don't have to. How nifty!

But what seemed like a cute addition to the broadcast took a more sinister turn on Tuesday when the ACLU published a report on other ways Amazon is deploying Rekognition. This facial-recognition technology is being hawked to police departments all over the country as a way to cheaply track and catch suspects, and some, such as the Orlando PD, have already begun testing it. An Amazon director has even bragged that the service could be used by Orlando to "find the whereabouts of the mayor through cameras around the city," The New York Times reports.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.