Grocery Outlet Bay Area stores are using facial recognition technology to catch shoplifters
Grocery Outlet locations in the Bay Area have deployed facial recognition technology as a tool to identify and deter shoplifters. The use of the technology in retail grocery settings brings biometric surveillance into everyday shopping spaces.
Why this matters: Every time you walk into one of these stores, your face may be scanned and checked against a database. You did not agree to that. You are not a suspect. Retail facial recognition systems are often wrong, and when they are wrong, the person flagged pays the price. California has some of the strongest privacy laws in the country, and the Bay Area is home to some of its loudest critics of surveillance tech. It matters who built this system, how accurate it is, how long the data is kept, and whether anyone outside the store has access to it.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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