An ex-employee has accused Amazon of breaching UK sanctions through promoting facial reputation generation to Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, The Financial Times reported.
Charles Forrest alleged that he used to be unfairly disregarded in 2023 after accusing Amazon of wrongdoing on numerous problems between November 2022 and Might 2023, in step with the item. The allegations have been introduced to a London employment tribunal as a part of a listening to this week.
Forrest mentioned that Amazon closed a care for Russian company VisionLabs to supply get right of entry to to its Rekognition facial reputation generation. It did that “thru what seems to be a shell corporate primarily based within the Netherlands,” in step with the tribunal filings. He additionally accused the corporate of breaking its self-imposed moratorium on police use of facial reputation tech implemented after the homicide of George Floyd.
Amazon denied the allegations. “We imagine the claims lack benefit and look ahead to demonstrating that in the course of the criminal procedure,” a spokesperson informed the FT. “In keeping with to be had proof and billing data, AWS didn’t promote Amazon Rekognition products and services to VisionLabs.”
Forrest used to be let opt for “gross misconduct” after refusing to paintings his contractual hours and failed to reply to emails or attend conferences, Amazon alleged. It denied that Forrest made the types of disclosures that will entitle him to whistleblower protections.
Amazon gave the impression to recognize that it had breached its ban on police use of facial reputation tech, whilst including that it did not smash any regulations. “A self-imposed moratorium does now not quantity to a criminal legal responsibility,” it mentioned.
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