In the same week the UK Prime Minister said shoplifting has ‘wreaked havoc’ on neighbourhoods for years, the first UK supermarket announced a trial of facial recognition technology (FRT). With the government’s focus on prevention and shoplifting stories continuing to make the front pages, it was probably inevitable. But this is uncharted territory for the big high street retailers who will need to tick off a few essentials before heading to the checkout.
Every Walmart/target/major retailer in the US has been using facial recognition since 2020-2021. ClearView provides the services to both corporations and law enforcement, combing the data from both of those into profiles of every citizen. The US has as much if not more surveillance than China, its just not upfront about it. And its also without a doubt illegal so in can’t be used as a primary source in convictions and is usually not even mentioned to retain secrecy about the level of data collected.
I wear a custom-fitted mask whenever I’m out in public so they can have fun with that.
