https://archive.ph/Zuf9E

Q: The story of one woman whom I will call ‘Anna’ gives a chilling insight into how Facewatch’s surveillance system works. Anna is a quiet woman in her sixties with physical health problems. She was taken to the shops by her adult children several months ago, when she was picked out and stopped by staff who told her to leave. When she asked why, security refused to tell her but said she had been flagged by their facial recognition cameras and the system said she was banned. The family were escorted out and shown a tiny sticker on the store’s entrance – obscured by racks of garden plants – indicating that Facewatch’s facial recognition was in operation.

With the support of her children, Anna contacted Facewatch to ask why she had been blacklisted. For her request to even be processed, she had to send a legal ‘Subject Access Request’ to the company with copies of her photo ID. Given that the company had already covertly taken and misused photos of her, this seemed like an absurd and insulting demand, yet it was a legal requirement to find out what data they held on her.

It turned out that a security guard had suspected her of taking goods from a store worth £1 – a mere £1 – some weeks earlier and had then added her photo to the database. When asked if the company had any video evidence of the alleged incident, the answer was no. Anna says that’s because it never happened. It certainly would be out of character for a lady in her sixties to launch a criminal career by taking an item worth so little from a shop where she regularly spends considerable amounts.

Nevertheless, Facewatch insists she is a legitimate target of their hi-tech system and that she will remain blacklisted from this retailer and other shops in the area that use its surveillance system. Anna doesn’t know where she can and can’t go without risking the public humiliation of being flagged by facial recognition cameras and accused of being a thief. She is stuck in limbo: treated like a criminal and with no ability to prove her innocence.

#tech #privacy