<story><title>Facial recognition: It’s time for action</title><url>https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JaRail</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not convinced the US will be passing much of anything in the next two-years. Passing pro-privacy regulation? Seems very unlikely to me. Microsoft should engage with Canada and the EU where technology&amp;#x2F;privacy regulation is gaining traction.</text></item><item><author>benwerd</author><text>&amp;gt; This stands in stark contrast to the meeting I attended on Tuesday with Amazon&amp;#x27;s general counsel regarding their Rekognition service.&lt;p&gt;And I think that cuts to the core of this: this is an anti-Amazon move. Nonetheless, I do also think it&amp;#x27;s a pro-consumer, pro-civil liberties stance. It&amp;#x27;s also a recognition that the tide is turning with respect to consumers and privacy; here, Microsoft is getting ahead of this changing trend and establishing that they&amp;#x27;re on the right side of it. Amazon is going to find itself hurting on several levels next year, as legislation likely finds its way onto the books and the consumer tide changes further.</text></item><item><author>geephroh</author><text>This is a laudable first step in advocacy for real regulation of a technology that already has huge impacts on privacy and civil society. I was in the room for one of the meetings with Microsoft&amp;#x27;s senior leadership as a representative of a Seattle-based civil liberties group. While our coalition would like to see MS go further, it was quite clear that they take their commitment to corporate responsibility and ethics around the AI issue very seriously. In particular, they seemed to understand our concerns about how facial recognition technologies can magnify existing biases in our criminal justice system.&lt;p&gt;This stands in stark contrast to the meeting I attended on Tuesday with Amazon&amp;#x27;s general counsel regarding their Rekognition service. There was a near complete rejection of the idea that mass deployment of surveillance technologies in today&amp;#x27;s largely unregulated environment posed any danger to civil society. He also denied that Amazon had any responsibility for the negative impacts of their AI&amp;#x2F;ML technologies, or role to play in industry efforts to self-regulate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>akiselev</author><text>The incoming California legislature is over 3&amp;#x2F;4ths Democratic so while the Federal gridlock may not make any progress, there could be some movement closer to home that at least gets the industry to prepare for the inevitable.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facial recognition: It’s time for action</title><url>https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JaRail</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not convinced the US will be passing much of anything in the next two-years. Passing pro-privacy regulation? Seems very unlikely to me. Microsoft should engage with Canada and the EU where technology&amp;#x2F;privacy regulation is gaining traction.</text></item><item><author>benwerd</author><text>&amp;gt; This stands in stark contrast to the meeting I attended on Tuesday with Amazon&amp;#x27;s general counsel regarding their Rekognition service.&lt;p&gt;And I think that cuts to the core of this: this is an anti-Amazon move. Nonetheless, I do also think it&amp;#x27;s a pro-consumer, pro-civil liberties stance. It&amp;#x27;s also a recognition that the tide is turning with respect to consumers and privacy; here, Microsoft is getting ahead of this changing trend and establishing that they&amp;#x27;re on the right side of it. Amazon is going to find itself hurting on several levels next year, as legislation likely finds its way onto the books and the consumer tide changes further.</text></item><item><author>geephroh</author><text>This is a laudable first step in advocacy for real regulation of a technology that already has huge impacts on privacy and civil society. I was in the room for one of the meetings with Microsoft&amp;#x27;s senior leadership as a representative of a Seattle-based civil liberties group. While our coalition would like to see MS go further, it was quite clear that they take their commitment to corporate responsibility and ethics around the AI issue very seriously. In particular, they seemed to understand our concerns about how facial recognition technologies can magnify existing biases in our criminal justice system.&lt;p&gt;This stands in stark contrast to the meeting I attended on Tuesday with Amazon&amp;#x27;s general counsel regarding their Rekognition service. There was a near complete rejection of the idea that mass deployment of surveillance technologies in today&amp;#x27;s largely unregulated environment posed any danger to civil society. He also denied that Amazon had any responsibility for the negative impacts of their AI&amp;#x2F;ML technologies, or role to play in industry efforts to self-regulate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jammygit</author><text>Could you elaborate on the privacy regulation that is gaining traction in Canada?</text></comment>