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To: Microsoft
Microsoft: End Your Domain Awareness System (DAS) Surveillance Partnership with the NYPD
We’re calling on Microsoft to immediately end its partnership with the NYPD on the Domain Awareness System. In 2008, Microsoft partnered with the NYPD to create the Domain Awareness System (DAS), a dystopian surveillance command center that would make George Orwell shudder. It's been in use ever since. Microsoft has sought public support for its refusal to sell police facial recognition, but that was never was one of their products. Meanwhile, the NYPD is set to spend $31.4 million more on the DAS in 2020 alone. The question is, will Microsoft put the millions of dollars ahead of its newfound principles? If Microsoft wants to be applauded for taking a stand, it needs to take a genuine one. Join us in telling Microsoft to #DitchTheDAS
Why is this important?
The DAS extends police power to surveil nearly all New Yorkers 24/7. The system uses cameras, license plate readers, MTA trip data, and radiological sensors to create a real-time surveillance map of New York City. It also taps into private data feeds ranging from Wall Street banks’ security systems to private data brokers. Once the data is funneled into the DAS, it can be stored indefinitely. Even worse, NYC gets a sweet kickback commission from Microsoft any time another city or town buys the DAS technology.
The DAS heightens the NYPD’s racist policing practice against BIPOC and immigrants. Not only can the DAS technology allow unconstitutional warrantless location tracking, it can also provide information for ICE to help deport people, too. We shouldn’t have to wait years for the Supreme Court to strike down the DAS. Microsoft should ditch it today. We’re calling on Microsoft to immediately end its partnership with the NYPD on the Domain Awareness System.