Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it would await federal regulation before selling facial recognition technology to police, making it the latest big firm to back away from the business following protests against law enforcement brutality and bias.
The announcement came shortly after rival Amazon.com Inc declared it was pausing police use of its “Rekognition” service for a year and International Business Machines Corp said it no longer offers the software generally.
In a statement, Microsoft said it has worked on enacting principles and legislation for the software’s use.
“We do not sell our facial recognition technology to U.S. police departments today, and until there is a strong national law grounded in human rights, we will not sell this technology to police,” the company said.