IBM has reentered the facial recognition market, three years after originally exiting due to concerns about racial profiling and human rights violations. Last year, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, IBM’s CEO announced the company would no longer offer facial recognition technology for “general purpose” use. However, recent documents reveal that IBM signed a contract with the UK government to develop a national biometrics platform that includes facial recognition. The platform will be used by immigration and law enforcement officials. Critics argue that this move contradicts IBM’s previous commitments to combat mass surveillance and racial profiling. Other tech companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft, have implemented partial bans on facial recognition services for law enforcement.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/31/23852955/ibm-uk-government-contract-biometric-facial-recognition