Apparently, Rite-Aid has been getting the “Rong-Aid” from facial recognition as they have been hit with a five-year facial recognition ban by the FTC.

According to The Verge (Rite Aid hit with five-year facial recognition ban over ‘reckless’ use, written by Emma Roth and available here), Rite Aid isn’t allowed to use AI-powered facial recognition technology for another five years as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission. In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the FTC accuses Rite Aid of using facial surveillance systems in a “reckless” manner from 2012 to 2020.

During this period, the FTC says Rite Aid used facial recognition technology to “capture images of all consumers as they entered or moved through the stores.” It then allegedly created a database of customers identified as shoplifters or exhibiting some other kind of suspicious behavior. For some customers, the database would have “accompanying information,” such as names, birth dates, and the activity deemed suspicious by the store, according to the complaint.

When a flagged shopper entered a Rite Aid store with facial recognition technology, the FTC says employees would receive a “match alert” sent to their mobile phones. As a result, Rite Aid employees allegedly followed customers around stores, performed searches, publicly accused them of shoplifting, and even asked the authorities to remove certain shoppers, according to the complaint. The FTC says Rite Aid falsely identified people as shoppers who had been previously flagged by the system, with incidents (guess what?) “disproportionality” impacting people of color.

Additionally, the pharmacy chain didn’t inform customers that it used facial recognition technology, and employees were “instructed employees not to reveal” this information, the complaint states. Most Rite Aid stores equipped with facial recognition technology were located in New York City, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlantic City, and a handful of other cities.

In addition to a five-year ban from using facial recognition technology, the FTC’s proposed order requires Rite Aid to establish “comprehensive safeguards” to protect customers. The company must delete “all photos and videos” of customers collected by its facial recognition system, implement a data security program, and provide a written notice to customers who will have their biometric data enrolled in a database in the future, among other provisions. Since Rite Aid is currently going through bankruptcy proceedings, the FTC says the order will go into effect once the bankruptcy court and federal district court approve the measures.

Of course, if Rite-Aid goes fully bankrupt, that five-year facial recognition ban won’t mean much. 😉

Think Rite-Aid is the only retailer using facial recognition technology? In 2021, Fight for the Future’s Ban Facial Recognition in Stores campaign had over 35 organizations demand that retailers like Albertsons, Macy’s, and Ace Hardware stop using the technology.

Chances are, most of us have had facial recognition technology applied to us many times – without our knowledge or consent. Gives one pause, doesn’t it?

So, what do you think? Are you concerned about facial recognition technology being used on you without your consent? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using GPT-4’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot’s face being scanned with facial recognition technology”.

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