
Photo by Nathan Van de Graaf on Unsplash
Privacy International is seeking answers and assurances from UK supermarket chain Southern Co-Op following its trial of the Facewatch facial recognition network
Photo by Nathan Van de Graaf on Unsplash
Privacy International has written to the Southern Co-operative supermarket chain to express serious concerns and ask for assurances following a report that it "completed a successful trial using Facewatch [facial recognition] in a select number of stores".
Facewatch describes itself as a “cloud-based facial recognition security system [which] safeguards businesses against crime.” Premises using the system are alerted when Subjects of Interest (SOI) enter their premises through the use of facial recognition cameras.
In October 2020, Privacy International urged authorities in the UK to investigate evidence that Facewatch is offering to transform its crime alerting system into another surveillance network for UK police forces by offering them the ability to "plug-in" to the system. We are still awaiting responses.
We are concerned that such a deployment at Southern Co-Op stores - even at trial level - could mean that, in order to purchase essential goods, people might be in effect left with no choice but to submit themselves to facial recognition scans.
We are also deeply concerned about the potential sharing of captured data with police, with or without Co-op’s knowledge.
As a result, we are calling on Southern Co-Op to confirm:
Privacy International has twice wrote to Facewatch, as well, to seek a response to our concerns but has never received a response.
We will update this page with any developments.
UPDATE 17 December 2020
Southern Co-op have responded but have unfortunately failed to address concerns. As a result we are calling on them to:
Their response and ours are attached to this page.
We will update this page with any developments.