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Rite Aidhas beenbannedfrom using facial recognition package for five years , after the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) incur that the U.S. drugstore giant ’s “ reckless use of facial surveillance systems ” go away customer humiliated and put their “ sensitive selective information at risk . ”
The FTC’sOrder , which is open to blessing from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court after Rite Aidfiled for Chapter 11 failure protectionin October , also apprize Rite Aid to cancel any image it call for as part of its facial recognition system rollout , as well as any product that were built from those images . The company must also implement a robust data security department political platform to safeguard any personal data point it collects .
A Reutersreport from 2020detailed how the drugstore chain had secretly introduced facial recognition system across some 200 U.S. stores over an eight - year period commence in 2012 , with “ largely lower - income , non - blank neighbourhood ” serving as the engineering testbed .
With the FTC ’s increasingfocus on the misuse of biometric surveillance , Rite Aid fell firmly in the administration government agency ’s crosshairs . Among its allegement are that Rite attention — in partnership with two compress companies — created a “ watchlist database ” moderate images of client that the company say had engaged in criminal activity at one of its stores . These images , which were often piteous quality , were seize from CCTV or employees ’ mobile phone cameras .
When a customer entered a storehouse who supposedly match an exist prototype on its database , employees would receive an robotic alert instructing them to take action — and the majority of the clock time this instruction was to “ approach and identify , ” meaning avow the client ’s identity and asking them to bequeath . Often , these “ couple ” were put on positives that led to employees incorrectly accusing customers of wrongdoing , create “ superfluity , harassment , and other harm , ” according to the FTC .
“ employee , act on false positivist alerts , followed consumer around its stores , searched them , ordered them to leave , called the police to confront or remove consumer , and publicly accused them , sometimes in front of admirer or mob , of shoplifting or other misconduct , ” the complaint reads .
to boot , the FTC said that Rite Aid fail to inform customers that facial acknowledgement engineering science was in enjoyment , while also instructing employee to specificallynotreveal this data to customers .
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Facial recognition software has come forth as one of the most controversial facets of the AI - powered surveillance era . In the past few years we ’ve seen urban center issueexpansive ban on the technology , while politico have fought toregulate how police utilize it . And company such as Clearview AI , meanwhile , have beenhit with lawsuitsandfinesaround the world for majordata privacy breachesaround facial realisation engineering .
The FTC ’s latest finding regarding Rite Aid also shines a sparkle on inherent preconception in AI scheme . For representative , the FTC says that Rite Aid fail to mitigate hazard to certain consumers due to their subspecies — its engineering was “ more likely to generate false positives in memory board located in battalion - Black and Asian biotic community than in large number - whitened biotic community , ” the findings remark .
Additionally , the FTC said that Rite Aid conk out to essay or evaluate the accuracy of their facial acknowledgement system prior to , or after , deployment .
In apress discharge , Rite Aid say that it was “ pleased to make an correspondence with the FTC , ” but that it disagreed with the Southern Cross of the allegation .
“ The allegement relate to a facial recognition engineering science pilot program the Company deploy in a limited phone number of stock , ” Rite Aid say in its statement . “ Rite Aid cease using the engineering science in this small group of store more than three days ago , before the FTC ’s investigation regarding the Company ’s use of the engineering began . ”
