John,
Tear gas and batons are not the cops most dangerous weapon: it's surveillance. That's what police are using to target people and crack down on dissent en masse, and Amazon is helping them to do it.
For years, Amazon has been arming police with footage from neighborhood surveillance cameras and dangerous facial recognition technology.1
Enough is enough. In order to truly address the violence and oppression from police, we need local elected officials to cut ties between Amazon and police departments.
Tell mayors and city council members to act now to end all Amazon-police surveillance partnerships!
TAKE ACTION
Make no mistake: Amazon is building a nation-wide surveillance network of our homes and communities, and the infrastructure to hand that data over to police.2 3
Amazon provides access for over 1,330 police departments to request and store footage from millions of Ring users. Cops then pair the stored footage with Amazon’s facial Rekognition software that the tech corporation also sells to police.4 5 6
This enables police to identify and target protesters at a time when many who are standing up for justice are getting maced and fired at by rubber bullets.
Nationwide, people are taking action for greater police accountability. That can’t happen as long as Amazon continues to offer their surveillance network to police departments as an end run around oversight and judicial review.7
Sign the petition for local representatives to immediately cancel any and all police partnerships with Amazon.
In solidarity,
Ayele, Fight for the Future
Footnotes:
1. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjw9e8/inside-rings-quest-to-become-law-enforcements-best-friend
2. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/11/19/police-can-keep-ring-camera-video-forever-share-with-whomever-theyd-like-company-tells-senator/
3. NBC Chicago. https://www.nbcchicago.com/lx/amazons-ring-is-partnering-with-police-departments-to-collect-crime-data/2273905/
4. Map of Amazon Ring-Police Partnerships. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1eYVDPh5itXq5acDT9b0BVeQwmESBa4cB&ll=36.19459170250794,-103.96982876449249&z=4
5. ABC Action News. https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/privacy-advocates-concerned-about-amazon-marketing-facial-recognition-to-ring-doorbell-police-partners
6. Medium. https://medium.com/@amazon_employee/im-an-amazon-employee-my-company-shouldn-t-sell-facial-recognition-tech-to-police-36b5fde934ac
7. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/06/03/amazon-police-racism-tech-black-lives-matter/
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
