Facewatch comes under the public eye again

Biometric security company Facewatch will provide its technology to UK retailer Iceland. News of a new client comes only a week after the facial recognition provider faced accusations of mistaking an innocent woman for a shoplifter at two Home Bargains stores.

Iceland began testing the technology in two of its stores in Bradford and Salford this week, in preparation for a wider rollout. The frozen foods supermarket chain plans to deploy the facial recognition software in six stores by October 2025 with further implementation expected.

The retailer says it followed a “robust due diligence process” while the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has reviewed Facewatch’s technology.

Facewatch’s biometric surveillance system compares the faces of customers entering stores with a database containing suspected retail criminals, including individuals thought to have committed offenses at other stores within the Facewatch retail network, which includes stores from Budgens, Fraser Group and more. If there is a biometric match, the store’s staff is alerted. Faces that do not result in a match are immediately deleted, according to The Grocer.

To add people to the database, retailers can upload an image of a suspect and complete a formal witness statement, which is reviewed by Facewatch.

The potential shortcomings of this process, however, were revealed last week when the biometric company admitted that its system wrongly added a woman named Danielle Horan to its shoplifter watchlist.

False accusations over toilet rolls and Tylenol

Horan was escorted from two Home Bargains stores in Manchester based on a false theft report of stealing a toilet paper roll. Facewatch later confirmed that the woman did indeed purchase the item.

“We acknowledge and understand how distressing this experience must have been and the retailer has since undertaken additional staff training,” the company says.

Horan says that the stores did not share any explanation for kicking her out. Her experience has once again reignited debates over the increase of facial recognition deployments in retail stores across the UK.

The newest Home Bargains incident shows that even a single false alert can erode public trust, according to Mark Hodgson, chairman of Private Investigators Tremark and vice-president of the Association of British Investigators.

But the incident is not unique, even within the past two months. A London woman has filed a complaint with the ICO after she was added to the Facewatch database over the alleged theft of 39 pence worth of pain killers from a Home Bargains store, according to The Guardian. She denies stealing the pills, and accuses the retailer and Facewatch of a disproportionate response.

Oversight needed for facial recognition in retail

Unless robust protections are in place, the threats to privacy and civil liberties could exceed any benefits of preventing theft. Consumers, government officials, and ethical retailers need to insist on rigorous oversight before allowing surveillance systems to control store access, Hodgson told Retail Times.

This isn’t the first time Facewatch has landed itself in hot water over a misidentification case. Last year, the company was sued by privacy rights group Big Brother Watch after its system wrongly flagged a 19-year-old girl as a shoplifter.

The company has faced an investigation from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The office concluded that Facewatch’s system was permissible under law but also found that the company’s policies had breached data protection legislation on several points.

Former UK policing minister Chris Philp drew backlash for a closed-door meeting with Facewatch while it was under investigation by the ICO. Facewatch has also come under scrutiny for hiring former UK Biometrics & Surveillance Camera Commissioner Fraser Sampson as the company’s non-executive director. Big Brother Watch has alleged that the watchdog’s head was negotiating with the company while responsible for regulating it.

Sampson, on his side, highlights in a column for Biometric Update, that facial recognition is helping combat a serious problem – rising retail crime. Theft from shops in England and Wales last year passed the half-million mark for the first time, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

AI vision alternatives

Some companies are already introducing solutions that could avoid the thorny issue of scanning people’s faces while entering a shop.

Earlier this month, Paris-based video analytics startup Veesion announced a 38 million euro (US$44 million) Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to €53 million ($61.4 million).

Its algorithms detect humans and identify their movements while recognizing objects, such as merchandise, carts, baskets or bags. The technology allows it to recognize gestures and flag potential theft without tracking an individual or any of their biometric characteristics.

Veesion’s product is deployed in 5,000 stores in 25 countries. The new funding round will boost the firm’s international expansion, with a key focus on the U.S. market, where the company already generates 10 percent of its revenue, according to its release.

Store operators using Veesion’s system have flagged more than 85 percent of alerts as relevant, the company’s co-founder Benoît Koenig told Business Insider. One U.S. client cut their losses from the health and beauty section in half during the first three months of implementation.

Veesion is also exploring technology for improper scans at self-checkout to slip-and-fall detection.

Another computer vision startup, Trigo Vision has launched an AI-driven loss prevention software that compares the items a shopper has picked up at the store with items scanned at checkout. An alert is triggered if an item is taken but not scanned.

The product allows Trigo to track shoppers as anonymized figures, the firm says in its announcement. The company’s software has been deployed by retailers such as Tesco in the UK and Rewe in Germany.

Article Topics

biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  Facewatch  |  facial recognition  |  retail biometrics  |  Trigo Vision  |  UK  |  Veesion  |  vision AI