Amazon had purchased cameras to take the temperatures of workers from a company previously blacklisted by the United States, Reuters reported.
People familiar with the matter said China's Dahua Technology Co Ltd exported 1,500 cameras to Amazon this month in a deal valued close to $10 million. At least 500 Dahua systems are being used by Amazon in the U.S., they added.
Is it even legal?
Amazon's procurement, which has not been previously reported, is legal because the rules handling U.S. government settlement awards and exports to blacklisted firms, The Guardian reported.
The U.S. "considers that transactions of any nature with listed entities carry a 'red flag' and recommends that U.S. companies proceed with caution," according to the Bureau of Industry and Security's website. Dahua has disputed the designation, and Beijing has denied the mistreatment of the minority organizations.
Amazon declined to confirm its purchase from Dahua but said its hardware complied with national and state laws. Its temperature checks have been allowed "support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities."
The organization said it was implementing thermal imagers from various manufacturers, which it declined to name. These vendors include Infrared Cameras, which Reuters formerly reported, and Flir, according to personnel at Amazon-owned Whole Foods, who saw the deployment. Flir declined to touch upon its clients.
"It's troubling to learn [those] well-known American companies [turn] a blind eye to companies that are fueling the [China's] treatment [to their own people]," said Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee.
Dahua's thermal cameras were utilized in hospitals, airports, train stations, government offices, and factories throughout the pandemic. In addition to selling thermal technology, Dahua makes white-label safety cameras resold under dozens of different manufacturers inclusive of Honeywell, according to the studies and reporting firm IPVM. Dahua was among the 28 companies blacklisted by the Department of Commerce because of such human rights violations reports.
Face detection privacy
The coronavirus has infected staff from dozens of Amazon warehouses, ignited protests over allegedly unsafe situations amid the outbreak, and brought on unions to demand warehouse closures. Temperature checks help Amazon stay operational. Amazon stated the kind of temperature reader makes use of varied by way of building.
In order to check if someone has a fever, Dahua's thermal compares a person's radiation with a separate infrared calibration device. The device makes use of face detection technology to track subjects on foot by and make sure it is detecting someone's temperature accurately.
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An extra recording tool keeps snapshots of faces the camera has spotted and their temperatures, The Guardian reported. An optional facial recognition software program can fetch images of the same subject to determine who a possible patient may have interacted with.
Amazon clarified it no longer uses of facial recognition on any of its thermal cameras. Civil liberties agencies have warned the software program may want to strip human beings of privacy and lead to arbitrary apprehensions.
In reaction to questions about the thermal systems, Amazon said in a statement: "None of this equipment has network connectivity, and no personally identifiable information will be visible, collected or stored."
