British supermarket chain Asda is facing something of a backlash over the trialing of live recognition technology in its stores, where FaiceTech’s solution is integrated into existing CCTV cameras.
The campaign against the tests – announced in March, covering five supermarkets in the Greater Manchester area – has been spearheaded by civil rights campaigner Big Brother Watch.
As of late April, Asda reportedly received over 5,000 complaints from shoppers opposed to being exposed to this controversial and invasive type of mass surveillance. Asda, on the other hand, downplays this and claims it only got 89 complaints.
The system uses CCTV cameras to scan and capture people’s faces, and then compare them to the chain’s own watchlist of individuals suspected – including those never convicted – of previous instances of theft, or committing acts of violence or fraud in the stores.
If such a person is identified, the real-time process allows Asda security to approach them “in a matter of seconds.”
Falling victim to a false positive would be particularly unpleasant in this scenario, but according to Big Brother Watch, the fundamental problem is that biometric identity checks target all shoppers, meaning they are all treated as suspects.
On top of the act of surveillance itself, the group finds fault with the supermarket chain compiling its own “secret watchlist” without due process.
“Facial recognition has well-documented issues with accuracy and bias, and has already led to distressing and embarrassing cases of innocent shoppers being publicly branded as shoplifters,” Big Brother Watch Senior Advocacy Officer Madeleine Stone told industry news site The Grocer.
Other than now denying receiving thousands of complaints, when the trial was launched Asda seemed set to push the use of the technology, emphasizing an “unacceptable” trend of a rising number of shoplifting cases and violence against employees as the reason.
However, the company is also criticized for the way it handles meaningful consent and informed choice. Both require the possibility to opt out. Yet the five stores included in the trial merely inform shoppers that facial recognition is used by displaying signs.
Last month, Madeleine Stone said that facial recognition is already “dangerously out of control in the UK” and advised Asda to abandon the trial, and the government to “urgently step in to prevent the unchecked spread of this invasive technology.”
