The Pokémon Company is bringing facial recognition to stores to fight scalpers
The Pokémon Company is deploying facial recognition technology in retail stores, framing the move as a measure against scalpers who buy up limited-edition products in bulk. The system would scan shoppers' faces to identify and restrict repeat buyers.
Why this matters: Stopping scalpers is a real and annoying problem. Building a facial recognition database of everyone who shops for trading cards is a different problem entirely. Every person who walks into that store gets scanned, not just bad actors. The company decides who counts as a scalper, and you have no say in that call. Biometric data is not like a loyalty card you can cancel. Once a company has your face on file, the question of what else it does with that data does not go away when the card restock is over.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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