The Southern Co-op is confident its facial recognition tech to cut crime in stores has not breached privacy rules after receiving a newly filed complaint from campaign group Big Brother Watch.
The complaint, sent to the Information Commissioner via the group’s lawyers from data rights firm AWO, claimed that the use of the biometric cameras in its convenience stores, which are sold by surveillance company Facewatch, was “unlawful” and “infringed the data rights of a significant number of UK data subjects”.
The privacy rights group also said that Southern Co-op staff can add individuals to the facial recognition watchlist without them knowing for up to two years.
“Our legal analysis shows there are good reasons to believe that Facewatch and Southern Co-op’s implementation of live facial recognition technology is in breach of data protection legislation,” said Alex Lawrence-Archer, solicitor at data rights agency AWO. “And it could be causing serious harm to people on their ‘watchlists’.
“This kind of high-risk, biometric processing needs a strong justification, and it’s not at all clear that Facewatch and Southern Co-op meet that test.”
Southern Co-op said the only biometric data retained is of those who have been “identified and evidenced as an offender” of committing crimes in the stores, “including those who have been banned/excluded”. These images are held for a year from their last offence evidenced, it added, so it can generate an alert to subscribers when the offender enters their premises.
Any other photos of shoppers who are not on a watchlist are kept for five days, in order “to discover and report crimes that have already happened”, as opposed to most CCTV operators, which retain footage for 30 days, according to Facewatch.
“The safety of our colleagues and customers is paramount and this technology has made a significant difference to this, in the limited number of high-risk locations where it is being used,” said a Southern Co-op spokeswoman, referring to the 35 stores in which it has been installed.
“Signage is on display in the relevant stores. As long as it continues to prevent violent attacks, then we believe its use is justified.”
The complaint also said that the facial recognition software could be used to share biometric photos of “subjects of interest” with other companies that buy access to its system.
However, Facewatch said it “never” shared images or biometric data of shoppers with any other stores, only of persons evidenced as suspected repeat offenders. It said its sharing of images “complies with the principles of data minimisation and proportionality”.
Facewatch CEO Nick Fisher said: ”Facewatch is a vital tool for UK retailers, and significantly reduces crime, violence and anti-social behaviour wherever it is deployed. Our customers have turned to us after other methods of crime prevention such as CCTV, police, tagging and manned guarding have failed.
“BBW put out misleading, false and alarmist information which is designed to create fear in the general public by demonising the use of facial recognition technology.
“Facial recognition is lawful for the purpose of crime prevention under the Data Protection Act if strict criteria are adhered to. Facewatch operates in full adherence with the law. Facewatch has always been open and collaborative with the ICO and welcomes any further constructive feedback from them as we take our responsibilities around the use of facial recognition extremely seriously.”
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