Microsoft, ICE, and the Trouble With Technology Being 'Neutral'

When you wait for words to describe IBM, you call up solid and staid, merely it'south too stained. During WWII, under the direction of its chairman and CEO Thomas Watson, IBM assisted in mechanising the administrative work of the Tertiary Reich.

The company'due south German language subsidiary, with the cooperation and coordination of the parent company, set up concentration camps with leased menu-sorting machines that it maintained, customized applications for, and provided with paper to keep them in punch cards. The information churned out by those Hollerith machines played a part in putting Jews behind the razor-wire fencing that millions would non escape.

Today, thousands of children of immigrants and asylum seekers are in their ain chain-link cages in US detention centers, barcodes wrapped around their wrists. Companies behind the technology that keeps track of them—or doesn't—are non eager to boast virtually that fact.

In Jan, Microsoft talked upward its partnership with Immigration and Community Enforcement (ICE), which uses Redmond's Azure Authorities cloud service. The post re-emerged this week amidst the uproar over the government's kid-separation policy at the border, and for a brief fourth dimension, any mention of Ice was scrubbed from it. Sources with knowledge of the result told PCMag that an employee deleted information technology later seeing commentary in social media; information technology was restored presently thereafter.

The source also said they do non believe Azure or Azure services are being used in the separation of families at the southern border, something CEO Satya Nadella echoed in a letter condemning the administration'due south policy of separating families. He said Azure is but used by Ice for legacy mail, calendar, messaging, and certificate-direction workloads.

But really, he can't be sure exactly how the bureau uses its services. Some Microsoft employees apparently agree; they wrote an open letter asking the company to terminate its contract with Water ice. Developers on GitHub, which Microsoft recently acquired, did the same.

This is where technology companies need to make decisions on moral grounds; do they desire to practise business organisation with government entities engaged in work the Un Loftier Commissioner for Man Rights has called unconscionable?

Image-Recognition Controversy

While it'southward had a lower profile, Vigilant Solutions signed a contract with ICE for its license-plate-recognition (LPR) program, which is used to find and track people in real time. "Our LPR solution isn't just for finding stolen vehicles. It's for that and much more," the company's site says.

Vigilant Solutions did not respond to an enquiry about its work with ICE. And it'due south not the but company remaining tight-lipped about image-recognition technology being used by law-enforcement and government agencies.

Amazon'southward Rekognition uses deep learning to detect inanimate objects, people, and activities. When asked about legal only mayhap societally questionable uses should ICE become a customer, an Amazon spokesperson acknowledge the potential for abuse, but said Rekognition is field of study to the Amazon Web Services Acceptable Employ Policy.

A reading of the policy comes upwards curt in ways that would stop objectionable beliefs. The most relevant section would ban "Any activities that are illegal, that violate the rights of others, or that may be harmful to others, our operations or reputation."

Rekognition is not in use past ICE, but it is used by several police departments, something that worries some Amazon shareholders, who have asked the visitor to finish selling Rekognition to constabulary enforcement.

NBC News uncovered a raft of tech companies that have contracts with Ice, including HP Enterprise, Dell, and Motorola. One company that is profitable ICE should be of no surprise: Palantir. Information technology has a $41 billion deal for ICE's Investigative Example Management product, which is "mission-critical" to the agency, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

Palantir's co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel has been a steady supporter of Donald Trump since his entrada. Thiel himself has not spoken most the situation at the border, but in 2008, he made a $1 million donation to anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA, which is defended to reducing both legal and illegal clearing. Thiel apparently sees no irony in his condign a New Zealand citizen past bypassing the usual process.

Authorities contracts are reliably lucrative, simply profiting from activities that are then similar to those that have led to some of the worst atrocities in history comes at too high a toll. Just ask Google, which has been grappling with objections to its work with the Pentagon on a controversial drone program. The social uppercase Silicon Valley has gained over the years and its capabilities and skills should be put to eradicating the horrors of our past for a better futurity.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/opinion/27004/microsoft-ice-and-the-trouble-with-technology-being-neutral

Posted by: dahlstromwhalke38.blogspot.com

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