Why it matters: In June 2020, IBM notified Congress that it had discontinued its general facial recognition and analytics product lines due to concerns about mass surveillance and racial profiling. CEO Arvind Krishna explained the changes in a blog post on IBM’s website, which included a copy of the letter sent to Congress.
This post no longer appears on IBM’s website. Related to archive From the Wayback Machine, Krishna’s entry appears to have been removed in early 2022. But why?
According to documents reviewed by Liberty Investigations and The edgeJust last month, IBM signed a $69.8 million deal with the UK government to develop a biometrics platform with facial recognition capabilities. According to the jointly released report, the system will be used as a tool for immigration and law enforcement agencies.
A document related to the contract highlights the five phases of the Biometric Matcher Platform and Associated Services (BMPS) program. Phase three relates to a face algorithm that enables strategic face matching for law enforcement use.
When asked for comment, IBM spokesman Imtiaz Mufti maintained the company’s stance for 2020. “IBM no longer offers general facial recognition and, in line with our 2020 commitment, does not support the use of facial recognition for mass surveillance, racial profiling or otherwise human rights violations,” said Mufti.
The spokesman added that the BMPS program is not used for mass surveillance and that it is not capable of capturing video, which is often required for biometric scans of faces in a crowd. Instead, fingerprint and photo data are used to help police and immigration authorities identify suspects.
The UK Home Office, the agency responsible for law enforcement and immigration in the region, did not respond to a request for comment from The Verge.
Not everyone agrees with IBM’s view. Matt Mahmoudi, PhD, technology researcher at Amnesty International, told The Verge that there is no application of one-to-many facial recognition that is compatible with human rights. “Companies – including IBM – must therefore stop selling and respect their previous statements to discontinue these tools, including and particularly in the context of law and immigration enforcement, where the impact on rights is increasing,” Mahmoudi added.
It’s worth noting that other big tech companies were already following IBM’s lead in 2020. Just days after IBM’s letter to Congress was released, both Amazon and Microsoft said they would stop selling their facial recognition technology to the police.
Photo credit: Burst, Parker Coffman