Buffalo businesses admit to using facial recognition technology
Businesses in Buffalo have acknowledged using facial recognition technology on the public, according to an investigation by Investigative Post. The admissions reveal that private commercial operators in the city are scanning faces, though the scope and purpose of the surveillance is not fully detailed in available reporting.
Why this matters: When you walk into a store, you probably expect to buy something and leave. You do not expect your face to be scanned, logged, and matched against a database. Buffalo businesses doing this without customers knowing is a consent problem before it is anything else. There is no federal law stopping them. Most people have no idea it is happening. That gap between what businesses can do and what shoppers know about it is exactly where abuse tends to grow.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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