"Some quick thoughts on the public discussion regarding facial recognition and Amazon Rekognition this past week," 1 June 2018

Amazon Rekognition... makes use of new technologies – such as deep learning – and puts them in the hands of developers in an easy-to-use, low-cost way... [W]e have seen customers use the image and video analysis capabilities of Amazon Rekognition in ways that materially benefit both society (e.g. preventing human trafficking, inhibiting child exploitation, reuniting missing children with their families...), and organizations (enhancing security through multi-factor authentication)... Amazon Web Services (AWS) is not the only provider of services like these, and we remain excited about how image and video analysis can be a driver for good in the world, including in the public sector and law enforcement. There has been no reported law enforcement abuse of Amazon Rekognition. We also have an Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) that prohibits the use of our services for “[a]ny activities that are illegal, that violate the rights of others, or that may be harmful to others.” This includes violating anybody’s Constitutional rights relating to the 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments – essentially any kind of illegal discrimination or violation of due process or privacy right. Customers in violation of our AUP are prevented from using our services.

...There have always been and will always be risks with new technology capabilities... AWS takes its responsibilities seriously. But we believe it is the wrong approach to impose a ban on promising new technologies because they might be used by bad actors for nefarious purposes in the future.