Microsoft raises alarms about face recognition

The Associated Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Facebook fights to keep using your face Facial recognition technology is useful to some, unnerving to others and is the latest Facebook privacy criticism.

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft is calling on Congress to regulate the use of facial recognition technology to protect people’s privacy and freedom of expression.

It’s the first big tech company to raise serious alarms about an increasingly sought-after technology for recognizing a person’s face from a photo or through a camera.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that the government should form a bipartisan expert commission.

Many uses of facial recognition technology are "positive and potentially even profound," Smith said. "But other potential applications are more sobering. Imagine a government tracking everywhere you walked over the past month without your permission or knowledge. ... This has long been the stuff of science fiction and popular movies – like “Minority Report,” “Enemy of the State” and even “1984” – but now it’s on the verge of becoming possible," he said in the blog post.

Smith says Microsoft, which supplies face recognition to some businesses, has already rejected some customers’ requests to deploy the technology in situations involving “human rights risks.”

A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to provide more details about what opportunities the company has passed over because of ethical concerns.

Smith defended the company’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying it doesn’t involve face recognition.

Facial recognition has been in the news recently because law enforcement agencies in Maryland used the technology to identify the gunman in the Capital Gazette newspaper shooting last month. And earlier this month, the Orlando Police Department said it will continue using face recognition technology developed by Amazon despite concerns of its use by civil rights and privacy groups.

More: Orlando police decide to keep testing controversial Amazon facial recognition program

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