Reuters: Rite Aid monitored customers using facial recognition cameras
Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States, in one of the largest rollouts of such technology among retailers in the country, a Reuters investigation found.
In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, according to a Reuters analysis. And for more than a year, the retailer used state-of-the-art facial recognition technology from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government.
In telephone and email exchanges with Reuters since February, Rite Aid confirmed the existence and breadth of its facial recognition program. The retailer defended the technology's use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence. Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aid's data was sent to China.
Last week, however, after Reuters sent its findings to the retailer, Rite Aid said it had quit using its facial recognition software. It later said all the cameras had been turned off.
It's a very long article:
Reuters pieced together how the company's initiative evolved, how the software has been used and how a recent vendor was linked to China, drawing on thousands of pages of internal documents from Rite Aid and its suppliers, as well as direct observations during store visits by Reuters journalists and interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the systems' deployment.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:07AM (2 children)
Read more newsfeeds than just CNN.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:34AM (1 child)
Make your mind up. In the other thread you're arguing people should be shooting each other.
I am fairly sure I can't get CNN where I live anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:09PM
It doesn't matter if it's CNN. There's no such thing as news any more. It's all one or the other sides' opinions. They're all biased, have agendas, and are going for the audience $. It's well known that it's easy to pick and choose what you present to make your point. "Present your case in the court of public opinion" 101.