Facewatch ‘spy cameras’ in Hove store challenged

The Southern Co-Op group is facing a legal challenge to its use of facial recognition technology, supplied by Facewatch, to tackle crime in its stores.

Big Brother Watch has complained to the Information Commissioner about biometric surveillance at Co-Op shops and stores. The privacy campaign group says the system breaches data protection legislation and people may end up on a watch-list without knowing.

A camera captures the faces of people who enter the shops, and the images are analysed and biometric data is extracted and processed. This is then compared with a database of people the co-operative says are known to have stolen from its shops, or been violent. The data from the facial recognition cameras is kept for 72 hours.

Out of the Co-Ops 200 stores in southern England, some 35 have the technology installed, including in Hove, Croydon and Chichester. The company says it is only using the Facewatch system in shops with a history of crime, to protect its staff.

Big Brother Watch has challenged its legality in a submission to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) claiming that "the supermarket is adding customers to secret watch-lists with no due process, meaning shoppers can be spied on, blacklisted across multiple stores and denied food shopping despite being entirely innocent." Big Brother Watch claims the system breaches data protection laws because the information is processed in ways which are not proportionate to the need to prevent crime.

Perhaps rattled by the complaint, Southern Co-Op said it would welcome any "constructive feedback" from the Information Commissioner adding: "We take our responsibilities around the use of facial recognition extremely seriously and work hard to balance our customers' rights with the need to protect our colleagues and customers from unacceptable violence and abuse."

A spokesperson for Facewatch said: "Facial recognition may be used where it is necessary because other methods to prevent crime, such as policing, CCTV and manned guarding, have [been] tried and failed. Any privacy intrusion is minimal and proportionate”.