Customer Experience

Civil rights groups call on retailers to halt facial recognition

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July 14, 2021

More than 35 civil rights organizations are calling for retailers to not use facial recognition on customers or workers in their stores, saying that peoples' faces should not be scanned, stored or sold just because they walk into or work at a store, according to a press release.

The campaign, launched last month by Fight for the Future, includes a scorecard with information on whether or not some of the largest retailers in the U.S. use facial recognition.

In response to thousands of people tweeting and emailing companies, Walmart and Kroger have made commitments to not use facial recognition, according to the press release.

Albertsons and Macy's are among the stores flagged as currently using the technology, according to the press release.

Walgreens, McDonald's, 7-11, and Best Buy are among retailers that have not clarified their policies, according to Fight for the Future.

Fight for the Future said it is trying to clarify if Lowe's has stopped using facial recognition after a lawsuit was filed against the company in 2019. Lowe's said in an email to this website that it does not collect biometric data or use facial recognition in its stores.

Home Depot, Target, Costco, CVS, Dollar Tree, and Verizon confirmed to Fight for the Future that they are not using and don't have plans to use facial recognition in their stores.

The campaign claims facial recognition can be used by stores in ways that harm people: someone who participated in a protest could be included in a database of people banned from a store; an algorithm could wrongfully accuse a person with a physical disability of being intoxicated and security could throw that person out; a shopper who relies on SNAP could be flagged as low priority for customer support; a worker could be tracked all day and disciplined for taking too many bathroom breaks; a store could voluntarily hand all of its data over to government agencies.

"Companies say they offer facial recognition in the name of 'convenience' and 'personalization,' but their real priorities are protecting and predicting their profits, ignoring how they abuse peoples' rights and put them in danger," Caitlin Seeley George, campaign director at Fight for the Future, said in the release. "The stores that are using or are considering using facial recognition should pay attention to this call from dozens of leading civil rights and racial justice organizations who represent millions of people."