A security guard at ASDA has put an end to the rumours about "face scanning" cameras on supermarket check-outs, after a shopper posted on Facebook about the supermarket harvesting data on shoppers.
The cameras are commonplace in most large supermarkets, and allow shoppers to see a real-time video of themselves scanning their items and paying. In a now viral Facebook video, one shopper filmed herself at self-checkout and shared it to express concerns.
In the video, the unnamed shopper points out that when you're going through self-checkout, ASDA will have access to your card info, what you've bought, and an image of your face. However, a security guard at the supermarket has weighed in, NorthWalesLive reports.
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In the video, the shopper says: "What they’re (sic) 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."
ASDA has firmly denied claims that it uses facial recognition technology at its self-checkouts to gather data for targeted advertising, and a security guard stepped up to confirmed this. Posting on Bristol Live's Facebook, he said: "I personally work as a security guard in an Asda store and I can confirm that our cameras don't have the capability to store images the cameras are purely there for us to spot theft/fraud and if anyone had put money in the till and either the till had not recognised the money so then we can either confirm or deny if that money had gone in the till.
"Asda has no reason and can't afford the technology to store people's images as that isn't much use to them." A spokesperson for ASDA previously told Full Fact that the cameras use AI to focus on faces.
They said: "You might see a green box around the face—but again this footage isn't recorded or stored. 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."
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