Amazon employees have joined civil rights groups and investors in protesting the company’s sale of facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. In a letter addressed to the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, that was published by The Hill, employees wrote: “We refuse to contribute tools that violate human rights. As ethically concerned Amazonians, we demand a choice in what we build, and a say in how it is used.” The letter also criticised the data science company Palantir’s use of Amazon’s cloud computing systems to carry out work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 100 Microsoft employees have also written a letter to their company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, protesting the software maker’s work with ICE. Microsoft holds a $19.4 million contract with ICE for a project relating to data processing and artificial intelligence. According to The Verge, the letter now has 300 signatories.

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New York Times