Sainsbury's has faced renewed scrutiny over its plans to expand facial recognition technology to more than 200 stores after the retailer paused the Facewatch system at its East Dulwich branch following a wrongful ejection. The supermarket chain has been rolling out the surveillance technology across its estate but has now suspended alerts at one store while it reviews what happened when staff wrongly removed a shopper.
Matt Arnold, 46, was buying supplies when managers refused to serve him at the East Dulwich branch, prompting an apology from Sainsbury's. The retailer later said staff had mishandled a correct Facewatch alert and would provide additional training before restarting the system at that location.
