Cathy O'Neil, Columnist

Amazon Can’t Make Facial Recognition Go Away

That would take an act of Congress.

Unstoppable.

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft have generated a lot of excitement by announcing that they will, at least for a while, stop selling facial recognition software to police departments. Municipalities have imposed moratoriums. Some activists are calling for an outright ban, on the grounds that the technology can disproportionately – and wrongly – identify people of color as criminals.

If only it could make a bigger difference.