Legal bid to curb face recognition cameras that are watching you shop

A prIVACy group has launched a legal bid to stop stores using ‘Orwellian’ facial recognition cameras designed to combat shoplifting and violence against staff.

Big Brother Watch filed a complaint to the Information Commissioner claiming the system, which blacklists offenders for up to two years, is ‘unlawful’.

The cameras store images of people with a past record of theft or anti-social behaviour on a database and the system alerts staff when they enter a store.

It has been used in 35 Southern Co-operative shops and by other retailers including Budgens. There are plans to install it in more locations, including petrol stations.

The legal complaint argues the biometric system is ‘infringing the data rights of a significant number of Uk data subjects’. Facewatch, which developed the cameras, insists they are 97.8 per cent accurate and needed to tackle shop crime. But the legal complaint says the system ‘uses novel technology and highly invasive processing of personal data’. Signs about it are posted in stores, but Big Brother Watch argues the surveillance poses

‘Significant risks to freedoms’

‘significant’ risks to shoppers’ rights and freedoms.

It says some of the technology comes from Chinese stateowned firm Hikvision, which also provides cameras for Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang.

Silkie Carlo of Big Brother Watch said: ‘The Southern Coop’s use of live facial recognition surveillance is Orwellian in the extreme, highly likely to be unlawful and must be immediately stopped.

‘The supermarket is adding customers to secret watchlists with no due process.’

But Facewatch said: ‘These critics are the ones who are actually helping the criminals by trying to create scare stories.’

Southern Co- Op said: ‘We work hard to balance our customers’ rights with the need to protect our colleagues and customers from unacceptable violence and abuse.’