Facial recognition cameras in supermarkets ‘targeted at poor areas’ in England
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Southern Co-op chain more likely to install tech ‘in deprived districts’, says privacy rights group.
By Shanti Das, Home Affairs Correspondent
Facial recognition cameras installed by a supermarket chain to tackle shoplifting disproportionately target people in poorer areas, according to a privacy rights group.
Southern Co-op, which uses Facewatch live recognition cameras in 34 branches, typically has shops in richer-than-average neighbourhoods. But just five of the stores in which it uses Facewatch are in the richest third of neighbourhoods in England, while 14 are in the poorest.
Professor Pete Fussey, director of the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy at University of Essex, said the findings raised concerns about the targeting of people on the ‘margins of society’. ‘This is another example of the many ways in which surveillance is more intensely focused on minorities and those who are disadvantaged socioeconomically,’ he said.
Southern Co-op, which is ...
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