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bitontheslide · 27-07-2022, 07:44 AM

The Southern Co-Op chain is facing a legal challenge to its use of facial recognition technology to cut crime.

Big Brother Watch has complained to the Information Commissioner's Office about biometric surveillance at its shops.

The privacy campaign group says the system at the convenience stores breaches data protection and people may end up on a watch-list without knowing.

But Southern says it is only using the Facewatch system in shops with a history of crime, to protect its staff.

The co-operative runs 200 convenience stores across southern England, of which 35 have the system installed.

A single camera captures the faces of people who enter the shops, and the images are analysed and converted into biometric data.

This is then compared with a database of people the co-operative says have stolen from its shops, or been violent.

A spokeswoman said the watch-list was not a list of people with criminal convictions, but of people for which the business had evidence of criminal or anti-social behaviour.

Any shopper previously banned would be asked to leave, and others would be approached by staff with an offer of "how can I help?" to make it clear their presence had been detected.

Big Brother Watch has challenged the legality of the system in a submission to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), shared with the BBC.

The group says the biometric scans are "Orwellian in the extreme".

"The supermarket is adding customers to secret watch-lists with no due process, meaning shoppers can be spied on, blacklisted across multiple stores and denied food shopping despite being entirely innocent," said Big Brother Watch's director Silkie Carlo.

"This is a deeply unethical and a frankly chilling way for any business to behave."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-62297546