AMAZON.COM, INC. | Rekognition: Facial Recognition Technology at AMAZON.COM, INC.
How other organisations have declared their voting intentions
| Organisation name | Declared voting intentions | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Dana Investment Advisors (Delisted) | For | |
| EFG Asset Management | For | A vote FOR this proposal is warranted. Shareholders would benefit from increased transparency and disclosure on how the company is managing human rights-related risks. |
| Kutxabank Gestion SGIIC SAU. | For | |
| Anima Sgr | For | As shareholders would benefit from increased transparency and disclosure on how the company is managing human rights-related risks. Although Amazon has taken steps to provide its customers with guidelines on using its technological products and services, shareholders and the company are likely to benefit from an independent report on how the company's due diligence process determines whether customers' use of its products or services contributes to human rights violations. The company's decision to indefinitely extend its moratorium indicates that it acknowledges the potential risks associated with its technologies but does not explain what the company will do in the future, especially if Congress does not take steps to enact regulations. |
| VidaCaixa | For | |
| Rothschild & co Asset Management | For | |
| CANDRIAM | For | Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is being rapidly developed and deployed around the world. It is estimated that one billion surveillance cameras in operation around the world, all capable of feeding images into an FRT system. This comes with grave risks to our privacy and our freedom (e.g., freedom of movement, freedom of association). As regulation is by nature reactive and slow, it is essential that companies operating in this technology display impeccable ethics, great care, and a high level of transparency to ensure its safe use before strong regulation is implemented. In June 2020, following the controversial use of FRT by police force on protesters during the “Black Lives Matter” movement, Amazon implemented a moratorium on use of their facial recognition product Rekognition to law enforcement agencies following the move of other large US tech firms. This decision was a de facto admission that the technology can cause serious harm to human rights and should be researched, developed, used and marketed with extreme care. Since, Facebook has scrapped their FRT functionality on their platform and Microsoft stopped all sales of FRT to police forces, both citing risks to society. For these reasons we feel that it is crucial that Amazon conducts a rigorous assessment of risks linked to Rekognition in particular and to FRT in general. A vote FOR is therefore warranted. |
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