By Ann Brown

Even though Brian Brackeen is the chief executive officer of the facial recognition software developer Kairos, he’s not too thrilled with the use of the technology by governments. In fact, he thinks it a dangerous idea, one that will negatively impact people of color.

“As the Black chief executive of a software company developing facial recognition services, I have a personal connection to the technology, both culturally and socially,” Brackeen wrote in Techcrunch. And his experience tells him, that the technology will be used in the wrong way. According to Brackeen, things are already heading in that direction.

Recall the outrage by Amazon staffers over Amazon’s deal with law enforcement to provide facial recognition surveillance (called “Rekognition”). Employees called for Amazon to pull out of the arrangement. And most recently fears was ignited over how the world’s governments may use facial recognition, especially after China used of the technology to track down a criminal suspect after he tried to get lost in a sea of 60,000 concertgoers.