Microsoft Calls on Government to Regulate Facial-Recognition Technology
July 13 2018 - 11:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
A top Microsoft Corp. executive is calling for the U.S.
government to regulate facial-recognition technology, an area Apple
Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Facebook Inc. and other tech-giant
rivals have made significant bets, and where Microsoft has made its
own investments.
It is also the latest controversial topic Brad Smith,
Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, has taken on. He has
recently challenged the Trump administration over the immigration
travel ban and the separation of children from parents at the
Mexican border. He also has weighed in on the role of artificial
intelligence in society and tangled with the government over
law-enforcement efforts to secretly search customer data on
Microsoft servers in the U.S. and abroad.
Facial-recognition technology has become deeply integrated in
tech giants' products, whether the key feature for unlocking
Apple's iPhone X or identifying people in Google's photos app.
In his latest missive, Mr. Smith tackles the potential
"sobering" uses for facial-recognition technology, such as creating
a database of everyone who attended a political rally or
governmental tracking of residents as they move about without their
permission or knowledge.
"The only effective way to manage the use of technology by a
government is for the government proactively to manage this use
itself," Mr. Smith wrote in a blog post scheduled for Friday.
But he also challenged the notion companies could regulate
themselves alone. Change won't occur, he said, if a few companies
adopt new standards while rivals ignore them.
Microsoft has developed its own facial-recognition technology,
called Face. Among its customers is Uber Technologies Inc., whose
drivers take selfies to verify their identity when they launch the
app to start picking up passengers. Microsoft declined to say
whether any law-enforcement agencies use Face.
Facial-recognition technology has been a lightning rod for
criticism. Facebook's use of facial recognition in photos uploaded
to the platform drew a complaint from consumers to federal
regulators earlier this year.
Amazon.com Inc. in May found itself embroiled in the contentious
issue of government surveillance when dozens of civil-rights
organizations called on the company to stop selling its
facial-recognition technology, called Rekognition, to
law-enforcement organizations.
In its response at the time, Amazon said the quality of life
would be diminished "if we outlawed new technology because some
people could choose to abuse the technology."
Microsoft was dragged into the debate a month later, when more
than a hundred of its employees signed an open letter posted on an
internal message board demanding the company no longer provide
technology to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over
concerns about the agency's role in separating children from their
parents. Mr. Smith noted in the blog post that the ICE contract
"isn't being used for facial recognition at all."
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 13, 2018 11:14 ET (15:14 GMT)
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