{"id":25905,"date":"2024-01-11T02:02:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T10:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=25905"},"modified":"2024-01-11T02:02:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T10:02:17","slug":"us-ftc-order-sets-minimum-privacy-requirements-for-biometric-surveillance-in-commercial-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/us-ftc-order-sets-minimum-privacy-requirements-for-biometric-surveillance-in-commercial-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"US FTC Order Sets Minimum Privacy Requirements for Biometric Surveillance in Commercial Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly common for customers to be watched, tracked, and analyzed in stores. A key element of this surveillance is AI-based facial recognition. Companies say that the facial recognition software helps prevent shoplifting by recognizing people who have allegedly stolen goods before, even though it recently emerged that claims about \u201corganized\u201d shoplifting have been exaggerated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, facial recognition technology is not a panacea, and represents a serious threat to privacy. This was recognized by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as far back as 2012, when it issued best practices<\/a> for companies using facial recognition. In May 2023, the FTC warned about the misuse of facial recognition technology and how it raised \u201csignificant consumer privacy issues and the potential for bias and discrimination.\u201d Now, the FTC has announced that it is banning the Rite Aid drugstore chain from using AI facial recognition for surveillance over the next five years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a complaint<\/a> filed in federal court,<\/strong> the FTC says that from 2012 to 2020, Rite Aid deployed artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology in order to identify customers who may have been engaged in shoplifting or other problematic behavior. The complaint, however, charges that the company failed to take reasonable measures to prevent harm to consumers, who, as a result, were erroneously accused by employees of wrongdoing because facial recognition technology falsely flagged the consumers as matching someone who had previously been identified as a shoplifter or other troublemaker.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to the FTC, Rite Aid\u2019s action subjected consumers to \u201cembarrassment, harassment, and other harm\u201d. The FTC says that the company\u2019s employees, acting on false alerts, \u201cfollowed consumers around its stores, searched them, ordered them to leave, called the police to confront or remove consumers, and publicly accused them, sometimes in front of friends or family, of shoplifting or other wrongdoing\u201d. A particular issue is that these actions disproportionately affected people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An FTC blog post provides more details about the surveillance system. According to the FTC, Rite Aid oversaw the creation of a \u201cwatchlist database\u201d of images of people the company claimed had engaged in actual or attempted criminal activity at one of its stores. Along with often low-quality images taken from CCTV, the database stored information such as first and last names, year of birth, and the alleged criminal activity. Eventually, the watchlist database held information about tens of thousands of people. If someone entered the store who supposedly matched an image in the database, employees received an alert. The FTC post includes details of how badly the system allegedly worked, including the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During one five-day period, Rite Aid generated over 900 separate alerts in more than 130 stores from New York to Seattle, all claiming to match one single image in the database. Put another way, Rite Aid\u2019s facial recognition technology told employees that just one pictured person had entered more than 130 Rite Aid locations from coast to coast more than 900 times in less than a week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The FTC complaint alleges that Rite Aid failed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n