US civil liberties groups have called on Amazon.com Inc to stop offering facial recognition services to governments, warning that the software could be used to target immigrants and ethnic minorities unfairly.
More than 40 groups have sent a letter to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos saying technology from the company's cloud computing unit was ripe for abuse.
The letter underscores how new tools for identifying and tracking people could be used to empower surveillance states.
Amazon has marketed a range of uses for its Rekognition service, unveiled in late 2016. These include detecting offensive content, identifying celebrities and securing public safety.
In a blog post last year, Amazon said a new feature let customers "identify people of interest against a collection of millions of faces in near real-time, enabling use cases such as timely and accurate crime prevention."
Customers provide the data for Amazon's tool to search.
"Seconds saved in the field can make the difference in saving a life," Chris Adzima, an analyst in the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon, said in the blog post.
But rights groups say the powerful tool raises concerns.
"People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government," said the letter to Bezos.
"Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom. In over-policed communities of colour, it could effectively eliminate it."
Amazon has helped various US jurisdictions use Rekognition, said the letter, citing public records obtained by affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In a statement, Amazon Web Services said, "Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology."
Amazon requires customers abide by the law and be responsible when using Rekognition, it added.
The world's largest online retailer is not alone: Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc's Google offer recognition services as well.
