At Amazon, facial recognition ban won just 2% of shareholder vote

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics centre in Boves, France, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that the company stop selling facial recognition technology to government agencies, a regulatory filing on Friday showed.

Some 2.4% of votes were in favor of the closely watched proposal, while the remaining votes were against it or in abstention. Amazon’s sale of the technology to law enforcement in Oregon and Florida has put the company at the center of a growing debate over facial recognition, with critics warning of false matches and arrests and proponents arguing it keeps the public safe. The tally excludes broker non-votes.

Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler

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source: reuters.com