Google Hits Pause On Selling Facial Recognition Tech Over Abuse Fears

The ethical dilemma swirling around facial-recognition technology has prompted Google to hit pause on selling its own system to the public. In mid-December, the company announced that its Cloud business would hold off on offering a facial-recognition system for general purposes, citing the potential for abuse.

- Michael Kan

“We continue to work with many organizations to identify and address these challenges, and unlike some other companies, Google Cloud has chosen not to offer general-purpose facial-recognition APIs before working through important technology and policy questions,” company Vice President of Global Affairs Kent Walker wrote in a blog post.

Walker’s statement was likely a subtle jab at Amazon, which has been offering a facial-recognition system to customers including US law enforcement. Amazon’s Rekognition technology can identify people’s faces in digital images and videos, making it useful for police to quickly look up suspects in criminal investigations. But civil liberty groups fear the same technology can be abused by powering mass surveillance over security cameras to track everyday citizens.