Grocery Outlet uses facial recognition technology at some Bay Area stores to combat shoplifting
Grocery Outlet has deployed facial recognition technology at select Bay Area store locations as a shoplifting deterrent. The retailer joins a growing number of brick-and-mortar businesses turning to biometric surveillance tools to address retail theft.
Why this matters: Every time you walk into one of these stores, your face is being scanned and matched against a database. You did not consent to that. You probably did not know it was happening. Grocery stores are not optional — people need food. Using biometric surveillance in that kind of space means ordinary shoppers are treated as suspects by default. Facial recognition makes mistakes, and those mistakes tend to fall hardest on people of color. California has no state law stopping retailers from doing this, which means the decision about whether to scan your face belongs entirely to the store.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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