WHEREAS, Amazon Web Services markets and sells to government a facial recognition system (Rekognition), that may pose significant financial risks due to privacy and human rights implications;

Human and civil rights organizations are concerned that facial surveillance technology may violate civil rights by unfairly and disproportionately targeting and surveilling people of color, immigrants and civil society organizations;

Nearly 70 organizations asked Amazon to stop selling Rekognition, citing its role enabling “government surveillance infrastructure”;

Hundreds of Amazon employees petitioned Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer to stop providing Rekognition to government, a practice detrimental to internal company cohesion, morale, and undermining employees’ commitment to retail customers by placing those customers at risk of warrantless, discriminatory surveillance, as Amazon faced year-long protests after reportedly pitching Rekognition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement;

The American Civil Liberties Union found Rekognition matched 28 members of Congress, incorrectly identifying them as individuals who have been arrested for a crime, and later found Rekognition falsely matched 1 in 5 California lawmakers, while other research shows Rekognition is worse at identifying black women than white men and misgenders nonbinary people;

Multiple cities and states have banned government facial technology, including Portland’s recent ban for both government and private use, while a Federal ban was introduced in bicameral legislation this year;

There is little evidence our Board of Directors, as part of its fiduciary oversight, has rigorously assessed risks to Amazon’s financial performance, reputation and shareholder value associated with privacy and human rights threats to customers and other stakeholders;

Amazon announced Rekognition detects all “seven emotions”, including “Fear”. If sold to government, the technology could be used to repress dissenters and produce errors, discrimination and harm;

At the 2019 Amazon shareholders meeting, a similar proposal received strong support and in 2020 the resolution received 31.9% support;

Further, in the face of a growing movement against police brutality and bias in criminal justice, Amazon, issued a moratorium on Rekognition for use by police departments for a year, in clear recognition of the multiple risks it poses to society and to the company. In contrast, Microsoft banned face-recognition sales to police awaiting federal regulation, while IBM said it no longer offers the software.

RESOLVED: Shareholders request the Board of Directors commission an independent study of Rekognition and report to shareholders regarding:

• The extent to which such technology may endanger, threaten or violate privacy and/or civil rights, and unfairly or disproportionately target or surveil people of color, immigrants and activists in the United States;
• The extent to which such technologies may be marketed and sold to authoritarian or repressive governments, including those identified by the United States Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices;
• The potential loss of good will and other financial risks associated with these human rights issues;

The report should be produced at reasonable expense, exclude proprietary or legally privileged information, and be published no later than September 1st, 2021.

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