Enter at your own risk.
New signs unveiled at some Wegmans across the Big Apple are warning customers that personally-identifying biometric data, such as facial recognition scans, is being stored while they shop.
The signs, posted this month in the grocery stores’ Brooklyn and Manhattan locations and first reported by Gothamist, will be used to “protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees.”
“Wegmans … collects, retains, converts, stores or shares customers’ biometric identifier information which may include facial recognition, eye scans, voiceprints,” the notices read.
“This is information that can be used to help identify you.”
The Rochester-based chain’s data collection began during a 2024 pilot, which vowed that shoppers’ data would not be saved.
The current signs posted across two locations around Gotham make no such promise, instead only committing to not “lease, trade or otherwise profit from the transfer of biometric identifier information.”
A Wegmans rep told The Post that the tech is only being used in a “small fraction of our stores that exhibit an elevated risk.”
“At Wegmans, the safety of our customers and employees is a top priority. Like many retailers, we use cameras to help identify individuals who pose a risk to our people, customers, or operation,” the rep said.
“The system collects facial recognition data and only uses it to identify individuals who have been previously flagged for misconduct.”
Currently, the only biometric data stored at Wegmans is facial recognition scans.
The images and video are kept “as long as necessary for security purposes” and then deleted. The grocery chain would not disclose the “exact retention period,” claiming it was for security reasons.
Other grocery and retail locations in the five boroughs – like Fairway Market, Westside Market and Walgreen’s – already implement biometric data collection in stores, according to Crain’s.
In 2021, a New York City law went into effect mandating stores collecting biometric data post clear signs indicating such – but the enforcing agency has no enforcement power, Gothamist reported.
A City Council bill, introduced in 2023 by member Shahana Hanif, proposed banning the practice of biometric data collection altogether. But the bill failed to pass.
The same year, Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan came under fire after using facial recognition software to boot two attorneys and critics from entering the Midtown venue and Radio City Music Hall.
“Since this bill was heard last session, there have been countless developments that have made the passage … more urgent than ever, including wrongful arrests and data leaks,” Hanif said in 2024.
She pointed to the Federal Trade Commission’s finding that the pharmacy chain Rite Aid used facial recognition technology to “falsely and disproportionately identify thousands of people of color and women as likely shoplifters, including those right here in New York City” as an egregious example of the dangers of data collection.
Wegmans told The Post that “persons of interest” are determined by its asset protection team on a case-by-case basis through information from police for criminal or missing persons cases.
“We understand concerns about fairness and bias in facial recognition systems” and employ “training and safety measures to help keep people safe,” the spokesperson said.
“Facial recognition technology serves as one investigative lead for us,” the rep added. “We never base our decisions on a single lead alone.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.