Microsoft won’t sell facial recognition technology to U.S. police departments until a national law is in place, President Brad Smith said Thursday, following the lead of IBM and Amazon. IBM “no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software,” CEO Arvind Krishna wrote Congress Monday, “outlining detailed policy proposals to advance racial equality.” Amazon implemented a “one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology” Wednesday, though it will continue allowing use from organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Marinus Analytics. “We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested,” Amazon said. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., welcomed a “pause” on police use of the technology: “What Amazon should really do is a complete about-face and get out of the business of dangerous surveillance altogether.” It took two years, but the American Civil Liberties Union is “glad the company is finally recognizing the dangers face recognition poses to Black and Brown communities and civil rights more broadly,” said ACLU Northern California Technology and Civil Liberties Director Nicole Ozer. The group's Civil Liberties Attorney Matt Cagle urged Microsoft to halt “its current efforts to advance legislation that would legitimize and expand the police use of facial recognition in multiple states.” Electronic Frontier Foundation Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia called Microsoft’s decision a good step, saying it “must permanently end its sale of this dangerous technology to police departments.”
Microsoft won’t sell facial recognition technology to U.S. police departments until a national law is in place, President Brad Smith said Thursday, following the lead of IBM and Amazon. IBM “no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software,” CEO Arvind Krishna wrote Congress Monday, “outlining detailed policy proposals to advance racial equality.” Amazon implemented a “one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology” Wednesday, though it will continue allowing use from organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Marinus Analytics. “We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested,” Amazon said. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., welcomed a “pause” on police use of the technology: “What Amazon should really do is a complete about-face and get out of the business of dangerous surveillance altogether.” It took two years, but the American Civil Liberties Union is “glad the company is finally recognizing the dangers face recognition poses to Black and Brown communities and civil rights more broadly,” said ACLU Northern California Technology and Civil Liberties Director Nicole Ozer. The group's Civil Liberties Attorney Matt Cagle urged Microsoft to halt “its current efforts to advance legislation that would legitimize and expand the police use of facial recognition in multiple states.” Electronic Frontier Foundation Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia called Microsoft’s decision a good step, saying it “must permanently end its sale of this dangerous technology to police departments.”
Best Buy’s upcoming reopening of most stores Monday could strain already-stressed product availability for independent retailers, Bjorn Dybdahl, owner of Bjorn’s in San Antonio, told us Wednesday. “The reality is, certain product availability is a big [concern] right now for us,” he said, citing Sony TVs and certain receivers.
Even as UPS officials warned traders that the date of entry into force for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will not be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic responses, they said all the details needed to comply won't be ready by July 1. Penny Naas, senior vice president for international public affairs at UPS, said it's not just the auto rules of origin that are “going to be provisional” in USMCA. She said that government officials will still be working on some other areas after it goes into effect. The global shipping company is in close contact with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
In the third cancellation of a 2020 high-end audio show in less than a month, Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest organizers canceled their Oct. 2-4 event in Denver. Promoters slotted in Oct. 8-10 dates for the 2021 show. In a Tuesday announcement, Director Marjorie Baumert and Operations Director Marcie Miller said they made the decision after “waiting for the dust to settle around the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown” to evaluate the possibilities. “The very worst thing that we can envision is for someone to fall ill because they came to our show,” they said.
A draft declaratory ruling circulated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday clarifies that industry can swap out antennas and other infrastructure on towers without delay under the 2012 Spectrum Act. Commissioner Brendan Carr told us Tuesday that despite the early resistance (see 2005110029) some local governments support the infrastructure clarification and the pandemic underscores the need for building infrastructure quickly.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized House Democrats’ proposed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act, which contains substantial broadband funding, as a “totally unserious effort,” before a likely Friday House vote on the COVID-19 aid measure. HR-6800 proposes $8.8 billion for an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund to provide an “emergency broadband benefit” to qualifying households and a $5 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund for emergency E-rate funding. It would make broadcasters and other local outlets eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program (see 2005130059). HR-6800 is a “seasonal catalog of left-wing oddities” that House Democrats decided to call “a coronavirus relief bill,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. Other congressional Republicans also criticized the measure, including House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized McConnell for suggesting Congress wait to appropriate further economic stimulus money amid the pandemic. “Time to press the pause button?” Schumer asked. “When we have faced the greatest health and economic crisis since the [Great] Depression?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized House Democrats’ proposed Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act, which contains substantial broadband funding, as a “totally unserious effort,” before a likely Friday House vote on the COVID-19 aid measure. HR-6800 proposes $8.8 billion for an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund to provide an “emergency broadband benefit” to qualifying households and a $5 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund for emergency E-rate funding. It would make broadcasters and other local outlets eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program (see 2005130059). HR-6800 is a “seasonal catalog of left-wing oddities” that House Democrats decided to call “a coronavirus relief bill,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. Other congressional Republicans also criticized the measure, including House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized McConnell for suggesting Congress wait to appropriate further economic stimulus money amid the pandemic. “Time to press the pause button?” Schumer asked. “When we have faced the greatest health and economic crisis since the [Great] Depression?”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., agree that revisiting the tariff deferral for importers with lost revenue could be worthwhile for Congress. Both were responding to questions from International Trade Today on May 12, during conference calls with reporters. Grassley said, “It sounds like something we ought to be looking into.” Some other Republican senators have also offered support for the idea (see 2005050045)
Formal negotiations between President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress on a fourth major COVID-19 legislative package temporarily “paused” while the White House monitors the economic impact of the beginning of easing pandemic-related restrictions by some states, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters Friday. Trump and congressional Democrats want a future COVID-19 bill to include major broadband funding (see 2004300058). Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and some other Republicans also signaled interest (see 2005070055). “We just had” major aid funding via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and a supplementary measure to inject further money into the Paycheck Protection Program, Kudlow said: “We put all this money in, which is fine. It's well worth it. Let's see what happens. As we move into the reopening phase this month, maybe spillover to June, let's have a look at it before we decide who, what, where, when.”