Asda has revealed why it uses cameras at its self-service tills after a shopper went viral on social media with their claims.
The supermarket giant denied accusations made by a woman claiming the store's use of facial recognition technology at the checkouts to gather customer data for targeted advertising. The supermarket confirmed to fact-checking charity Full Fact that the cameras are used as an anti-theft deterrent, highlighting that the images are not stored.
The statement comes after a viral video in which a shopper accused the supermarket of using facial recognition technology in a bid to collect customer data for targeted ads, The Mirror reports. The video was viewed over 400,000 times and in it, the woman complains about the new self-checkouts being installed at her local Asda, LeicestershireLive reports.
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The woman goes on to say that the checkout cameras "violate GDPR" as she had not consent to have her data taken.
She said: "What they’re basically happening, and this is my viewpoint, you’ve got a picture of your face, your debit card information and everything you’ve bought. Now, this is for as far as I’m concerned, targeted advertising…But I’ve never given anybody permission to take my data in that way. And under GDPR, unless you’ve given permission, they cannot do it."
However, Asda has now confirmed to that this was not the case and that the camera and screens are there purely to deter thieves from stealing. Asda went on to add that it does not use technology that collects, stores or compares "recognised' images.
A spokesperson from Asda told Full Fact: "We have no technology in our stores that could take an image, store it, and then compare it to other images to spot when a ‘recognised’ face comes into our store. The cameras use AI to focus on faces—you might see a green box around the face - but again this footage isn't recorded or stored."
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