amazon shareholders reject climate change facial recognition proposals technologyamazon investors reject proposals on climate change and facial recognition s warrenassociated pressmay 22 2019seattle amazon said on wednesday that its shareholders had voted down proposals that would have pushed the company to reconsider its societal impact in two key areas facial recognition and climate changethe proposals asked amazon to develop a more comprehensive approach to reducing its carbon footprint and put the brakes on how the company sells surveillance technologies to governmentsthe companys board had opposed the changes but the initiatives received support from the two most prominent shareholder advisory firms which help large longterm investors decide how to voteamazon did not disclose the vote total on wednesday but said it would by the end of the weekactivist investors typically bring shareholder proposals but the climate change initiative had an interesting twist amazon employees paid in part with stock pushed the plan the move introduced a new tactic in the growing activism among tech employees more than 7500 workers signed a letter supporting the climate change proposal disclosing their names publiclythe initiative would have pushed the company to develop a public report describing how amazon plans for climaterelated disruptions such as extreme weather and how the company will reduce its dependence on fossil fuels which power its vast fulfillment and delivery operations as well as its data centersglass lewis a shareholder advisory firm wrote that amazon disclosed less information about sustainability than its peers and it recommended investors support the proposal because it would let employees and shareholders better understand how the company addressed climate changeamazon and its board have argued the company is already working to mitigate its climate impact through various measures such as plans to disclose its carbon footprint later this year and a new initiative called shipment zero which aims to have 50 percent of shipments netzero carbon by 2030get the bits newsletter for the latest from silicon valley and the technology industryactivist investors submitted two proposals to limit the companys sale of its facial recognition tool amazon rekognition arguing the spread of such surveillance technologies could hurt civil rights and thus the companys reputationone proposal asked the board to commission an independent study looking at several issues such as whether customers could use rekognition to unfairly or disproportionately target or surveil people of color immigrants and activists in the united states or whether it sold to authoritarian or repressive governments abroad the other asked the company to stop selling rekognition to government customers unless the board determined the technology did not help perpetrate civil and human rights abusesamazon may be lagging its peers because it has not developed rules for bidding on government contracts has not formed an artificial intelligence ethics committee and has not announced partnerships with civil liberties organizations said institutional shareholder services the other top advisory firmthe company and its board have said they are not aware of any time that law enforcement agencies have used amazon rekognition to infringe on civil liberties