In a class-action lawsuit filed March 16 by an Amazon Go customer, Amazon was accused of not properly notifying its New York Amazon Go store customers that it was tracking and collecting their biometric data.
Amazon Go stores are cashierless stores operated by Amazon, com that allow customers to enter the store, pick up the products they want, and walk out without having to wait in a checkout line or scan their items. The stores use a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep-learning technologies to detect which products customers take off the shelves and then charge their Amazon accounts accordingly.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon Go collects biometric data “by scanning the palms of some customers to identify them and by applying computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion that measure the shape and size of each customer’s body to identify customers, track where they move in the stores, and determine what they have purchased.”
There is reasonable concern that the biometric data allegedly collected by Amazon might find their way into federal databases, as Amazon also provides server space to the federal government.
Nearly all the data collected by the National Security Agency (NSA) is stored in the cloud. The database used–Intelligence Community GovCloud–is reportedly classified and helps the federal surveillance organization “connect the dots” among the scores of systems employed by the agency to store and sort data.
NextGov admitted back in 2018 that the system backing the GovCloud database is the same one found “in data centers owned by Facebook, Amazon or other industry titans,” and that “the CIA awarded a $600 million contract to Amazon Web Services to develop a commercial cloud environment for the [Intelligence Community] agencies.”
Amazon Go’s collection of biometric data could have nothing to do with their contract with the federal government’s surveillance agencies, but concern remains that customers’ personal information could be accessible to the NS A, CIA, or other federal agency whose cloud servers are provided by the same company.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Amazon+Accused+of+Collecting+Biometric+Data.-a0746990791