• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 13, 2018

Threatening new and existing services offered by Facebook, Amazon and other tech titans, Microsoft is asking the government to regulate facial recognition technologies.

“Facial recognition technology raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human-rights protections, like privacy and freedom of expression,” Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote in a Friday blog post.

This calls for “thoughtful government regulation and for the development of norms around acceptable uses,” according to Smith.

Specifically, Smith is asking Congress to form a bipartisan expert commission to assess the best way to regulate the use of facial recognition technology in the United States.

For Microsoft, the request comes amid increasing investment in facial recognition-powered services and products. Among other talents, its technology can now recognize gender across skin tones.

Even without Microsoft’s urging, some form of government oversight in facial recognition technologies was likely inevitable in the United States.

Regulations imposed by other nations and transnational bodies have already begun to impact the strategies and business practices of U.S. companies.

Ahead of a comprehensive European data law, Facebook, for example, recently began giving users more control over their profiles and personal information.

To comply with the new law -- known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) -- the company specifically asked users if their data could be used to power targeted advertising and facial-recognition technology.

Earlier this year, Amazon came under intense pressure stop offering facial recognition services to governments.

Of note, Smith specifically mentioned Facebook in his post. “If you’ve ever seen a suggestion on Facebook or another social media platform to tag a face with a suggested name, you’ve seen facial recognition at work,” he wrote.

As of Friday afternoon, Facebook had not responded to Smith’s post.

However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was not necessary opposed to the general idea of government regulations. For him, he said the question is: “What is the right regulation?”