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June 17, 2020 05:20 pm

Microsoft Pitched Its Facial Recognition Tech To the DEA, New Emails Show

Microsoft tried to sell its facial recognition technology to the Drug Enforcement Administration as far back as 2017, according to newly released emails. From a report: The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the emails through a public records lawsuit it filed in October, challenging the secrecy surrounding the DEA's facial recognition program. The ACLU shared the emails with TechCrunch. The emails, dated between September 2017 and December 2018, show that Microsoft privately hosted DEA agents at its Reston, Va. office to demonstrate its facial recognition system, and that the DEA later piloted the technology. It was during this time Microsoft's president Brad Smith was publicly calling for government regulations covering the use of facial recognition. But the emails also show that the DEA expressed concern with purchasing the technology, fearing criticism from the FBI's use of facial recognition at the time that caught the attention of government watchdogs. Critics have long said this face-matching technology violates Americans' right to privacy, and that the technology disproportionately shows bias against people of color. But despite the rise of facial recognition by police and in public spaces, Congress has struggled to keep pace and introduce legislation that would oversee the as-of-yet unregulated space.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/tt9paki58_w/microsoft-pitched-its-facial-recognition-tech-to-the-dea-new-emails-show

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