(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)
A recent story about Meta face licensing changes caused me to get reflective.
“This openness to facial recognition could signal a turning point that could affect the biometric industry.
“The so-called “big” biometric players such as IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales are teeny tiny compared to companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon. If the big tech players ever consented to enter the law enforcement and surveillance market in a big way, they could put IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales out of business.
“However, wholesale entry into law enforcement/surveillance could damage their consumer business, so the big tech companies have intentionally refused to get involved – or if they have gotten involved, they have kept their involvement a deep dark secret.”
Then I thought about the “Really Big Bunch” product that offered the greatest threat to the “Big 3” (IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales)—Amazon Rekognition, which directly competed in Washington County, Oregon until Amazon imposed a one-year moratorium on police use of facial recognition in June 2020. The moratorium was subsequently extended until further notice.
I last looked at Rekognition in June 2024, when Amazon teamed up with HID Global and may have teamed up with the FBI.
So what’s going on now?
Hard to say. I have been unable to find any newly announced Amazon Rekognition law enforcement customers.
That doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. Perhaps the government buyers are keeping their mouths shut.
Plus, there is this page, “Use cases that involve public safety.”
Nothing controversial on the page itself:
- “Have appropriately trained humans review all decisions to take action that might impact a person’s civil liberties or equivalent human rights.”
- “Train personnel on responsible use of facial recognition systems.”
- “Provide public disclosures of your use of facial recognition systems.”
- “In all cases, facial comparison matches should be viewed in the context of other compelling evidence, and shouldn’t be used as the sole determinant for taking action.” (In other words, INVESTIGATIVE LEAD only.)
Nothing controversial at all, and I am…um…99% certain (geddit?) that IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales would endorse all these points.
But why does Amazon even need such a page, if Rekognition is only used to find missing children?
Maybe this is a pre-June 2020 page that Amazon forgot to take down.
Or maybe not.
Couple this with the news about Meta, and there’s the possibility that the Really Big Bunch may enter the markets currently dominated by the Big Three.
Imagine if the DHS HART system, delayed for years, were resurrected…with Alphabet or Amazon or Meta technology.
We are still in the time of uncertainty…and may never go back.
(Large and small wildebeests via Imagen 3)
Bredemarket 