Farmfoods has become the latest retailer to draw the ire of privacy campaigners after deploying facial recognition cameras to deter theft.
The frozen food retailer is using technology provided by Facewatch, which also counts Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Home Bargains, B&M, Sports Direct, Flannels, Spar, Southern Co-op and Morrisons Daily among its customers.
“By subjecting thousands of innocent members of the public to biometric identity checks, Farmfoods is turning its shoppers into suspects by default,” claimed Jasleen Chaggar, legal and policy officer at campaign group Big Brother Watch.
“It is completely disproportionate that customers should be confronted with intrusive surveillance when doing something as everyday as buying groceries.”
“Far from protecting shopworkers, live facial recognition will put them at increased risk of abuse and violence by requiring them to intervene. Farmfoods should prioritise the rights of its shoppers and staff over misplaced promises of security.”
Facewatch relies on a camera scanning people’s faces as they enter the store. The system checks for a match against a database of ‘subjects of interest’ – people deemed to have committed a crime previously in a Facewatch subscriber’s store. Store staff are sent an alert when a match is detected. If a match is not detected, the shopper’s facial recognition data is immediately deleted.
Facewatch runs the database and acts the data controller under GDPR laws. Store staff can submit new suspects to be added to the database by uploading an image and filling out a formal witness statement. Facewatch will then review the submission and determine whether it amounts to evidence of crime before making an addition to the database.
Facewatch’s first mention of Farmfoods as a subscriber was in August this year, though the retailer is said to have begun deploying the tech at an earlier date. Customers are notified by signs at store entrances.
Farmfoods has about 340 stores across the UK. It is not clear how many are deploying Facewatch cameras.
Iceland began trialling Facewatch in two stores in July ahead of a planned wider rollout, and Sainsbury’s launched the tech in one supermarket and once convenience store in September.
The system differs to Faicetech, which relies on the retailer acting as the data controller, and which Asda began piloting in five Greater Manchester stores in March.
Campaign Group Big Brother Watch has campaigned vociferously against the proliferation of facial recognition technology, arguing it is a disproportionate intrusion on privacy and a threat to civil liberties. In April, the group claimed Asda had been hit with thousands of customer complaints afters its hashtag #StopAsdaSpying trended on social media. In May, Big Brother Watch submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the supermarket’s pilot.
Read more: Facial recognition: Are retailers’ ‘big brother tactics’ a step too far?
However, proponents of facial recognition in a retail environment argue it is essential to protect staff from a rise in abuse and assaults.
Sainsbury’s surveyed over 2,000 consumers in July and found 56% supported the use of facial recognition to protect workers and customers. Some 63% backed its role in identifying repeat offenders and 55% believed it improved staff safety, according to the supermarket.
A Facewatch spokesperson said: “Facewatch’s technology uses the latest dual facial recognition algorithms and then human verification to ensure accuracy and has been audited to 99.98% precision.
“Any matches flagged by the system are reviewed by specially trained colleagues. This triple lock process is designed to ensure the near-100% accuracy.
“The system operates on a simple match/no-match basis: if there’s no match with a known subject of interest, the biometric data is automatically deleted within seconds.
“Facewatch is committed to maintaining the highest compliance standards and our system is continuously reviewed to ensure that our technology is lawful, accurate and deployed in responsible, proportionate ways that respect the rights of individuals.
“Our subscribers report reductions in crime of between 30% to 50%, and often higher, with frontline retail teams describing greater confidence doing their day-to-day work with fewer confrontations.”
Farmfoods was approached for comment.
In July, Home Bargains shopper Danielle Horan made headlines and was interviewed by ITV’s Good Morning Britain after she was asked to leave two stores and wrongly accused of shoplifting because her profile had been mistakenly added to Facewatch’s database.
No comments yet