LONDON — Simon Mackenzie, a security officer at QD Stores, a discount retailer on the outskirts of London, was out of breath. He had just gone after three thieves who had made off with packets of laundry soap. Before the police arrived, he sat at a desk in the back room to do something important: capture the faces of the criminals.
On an old desktop computer, he reviewed the footage from the security cameras, pausing to zoom in and save a photo of each thief. She then logged into Facewatch, a facial recognition program used by his store to identify shoplifters. The next time those people walk into any store within a few miles that uses Facewatch, the store staff will receive an alert.
The use of facial recognition technology by police has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years, but its use by private companies has received less attention. Now, as technology improves and its cost decreases, systems are making more inroads into people’s lives. No longer just the purview of government agencies, facial recognition is increasingly deployed to identify troublemakers and customers.
Facewatch, a British company, is used by almost 400 retailers across the country. For around £250 a month, or roughly $320, Facewatch offers access to a list shared by nearby stores. When Facewatch detects a captured face, it sends an alert to a smartphone in the store, where employees decide whether to keep a close eye on the person or ask them to leave.
Mackenzie adds a new face or two every week, he said, mostly from people who steal low-cost products. And he said that Facewatch alerts him at least once a day that someone on the watch list has entered the store.
Among democratic nations, Britain leads the way in the use of live facial recognition, with courts and regulators approving its use. Police in London and Cardiff are experimenting with technology to identify wanted criminals as they walk down the street. In May, it was used to scan the crowd at the coronation of King Carlos III.
But its use by retailers has drawn criticism as a disproportionate remedy for petty crime. In a legal complaint last year, Big Brother Watch, a civil society group, called it “extremely Orwellian.”
Fraser Sampson, Britain’s biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, said there was “nervousness and hesitancy” around the technology over privacy concerns and poorly performing algorithms in the past.
“But I think in terms of speed, scale, accuracy and cost, facial recognition technology can, in some areas, be quite literally a game changer,” he said. “That means their arrival and deployment is probably inevitable. It’s just a matter of when.”
Madeleine Stone of Big Brother Watch said Facewatch was “normalizing airport-style security checks for everyday activities like buying a liter of milk.”
By: Adam Satariano and Kashmir Hill
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6807610, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-07-17 19:10:06
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