Grocery Outlet Stores Quietly Adopt SAFR Face Matching Against Shoplifter Watchlists

Discount grocer Grocery Outlet has begun using facial recognition in some of its California stores, with small signs by the doors disclosing that face matching software is scanning shoppers as they enter, according to reporting by the San Francisco nonprofit outlet Mission Local.

The system in use is SAFR Guard, built by SAFR at RealNetworks. It captures images of customers at the entrance and runs them against a watchlist of people previously identified after causing harm, sending a phone notification to the retailer when there is a match. If a shopper’s image does not match the watchlist, it is deleted immediately, according to SAFR president Charisse Jacques, who characterized the deployment model as targeted rather than mass surveillance. Individual stores can build their own watchlists manually or pool data with other retailers.

Signs were found at four of Grocery Outlet’s five San Francisco locations, in the Mission, Portola, Bayview, and Richmond districts, though at two stores the notice was printed on a transparent background that made it difficult to read. How widely the technology is deployed is unclear: the Emeryville-based chain leases its stores to independent operators, and a company spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The legal position is notable. Mario Trujillo, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the software does not appear to violate California privacy law, which, unlike Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, does not require affirmative consent before biometric data is collected. The California Consumer Privacy Act gives shoppers a right to opt out of the sale or sharing of biometric data, but only after it has been gathered. San Francisco’s 2019 facial recognition ban covers city agencies, not private businesses. Critics argue the choice is not really voluntary; Lee Hepner, a lawyer with the American Economic Liberties Project who previously worked on San Francisco’s facial recognition ban, noted that a discount grocer caters to lower-income consumers who may have no other option.

Retail facial recognition carries a cautionary history, most prominently the Federal Trade Commission action that banned Rite Aid from using the technology for five years after its system repeatedly misidentified customers as shoplifters. SAFR’s platform has also seen public-safety deployments; Michoacan piloted SAFR live facial recognition to identify wanted and missing people, while watchlist-based retail systems are expanding internationally, with Facewatch planning real-time police alerts as Sainsbury’s expands its rollout.

SAFR says it does not share data with law enforcement, and people who believe they are on a watchlist can email the company to request deletion of their biometric data.

Sources: Mission Local

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team