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One of the UK’s largest supermarket chains began trialling live facial recognition in five of its Manchester stores yesterday.
Asda said this was in response to increases in retail crime, including abuse of shopworkers.
In January, the British Retail Consortium said that crime in stores was “spiralling out of control” with an estimated 55,000 thefts a day.
Asda’s facial recognition tech, provided by UK start-up FaiceTech, will compare customers’ faces to a ‘watchlist’ of people who have previously committed crimes at a store.
The company’s chief commercial officer said that “as a responsible retailer” Asda has to “look at all options” to protect its workers and reduce offences in its stores.
Campaign group Big Brother Watch called the trial “disproportionate” and said accuracy and bias issues with software had led to innocent shoppers being falsely accused of shoplifting.
