Former employees have accused Amazon of violating UK sanctions by selling facial recognition technology to Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. Financial Times report.
According to the article, Charles Forrest claims he was unfairly dismissed in 2023 after accusing Amazon of misconduct on a number of matters between November 2022 and May 2023. The claim was submitted to an employment tribunal in London as part of a hearing this week.
Forrest said Amazon had signed a deal with Russian company VisionLabs to provide it with access to its facial recognition technology, Rekognition. Court documents say Amazon made the deal “through what appears to be a shell company based in the Netherlands.” Forrest also accused Amazon of violating a self-imposed ban on police use of facial recognition technology that was put in place after the killing of George Floyd.
Amazon has denied the allegations. “We believe the allegations are without merit and look forward to defending them through the legal process,” a spokesman said. FT“Based on the available evidence and billing records, AWS did not sell Amazon Rekognition services to VisionLabs.”
Amazon claimed that Forrest was fired for “gross misconduct” after refusing to work contracted hours, not responding to emails and not attending meetings. The company denied that Forrest made any disclosures that would qualify him for whistleblower protection.
Amazon appeared to acknowledge that it had violated a ban on police use of its facial recognition technology, but added that it had not broken any law. “The voluntary suspension is not a legal obligation,” the company said.
