ACLU Comment on Letter from Amazon Employees to CEO Jeff Bezos Protesting Sale of Face Surveillance Technology

SEATTLE – Amazon employees today sent a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos calling on him to stop selling its face surveillance product to law enforcement and stating they “refuse to contribute to tools that violate human rights.”

Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Director for the ACLU of California, issued the following statement in response:

“While Mr. Bezos remains silent, Amazon employees are standing up and joining shareholders, civil rights groups, and concerned consumers to call out Amazon’s face surveillance technology for what it is: a unique threat to civil rights and especially to the immigrants and people of color under attack by this administration. We stand in support of these employees’ call on Mr. Bezos to do the right thing. Amazon must stop providing dangerous face surveillance to the government.”

The letter from employees comes just days after the ACLU and community partners delivered over 150,000 petition signatures, a coalition letter signed by nearly 70 organizations representing communities nationwide, and a letter from shareholders demanding the company stop providing face surveillance technology to governments.

On May 22, the ACLU released emails and other documents revealing how the company has been actively marketing its dangerous face surveillance to governments, and helping them deploy it.