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Facial Recognition at Checkout: Convenient or Creepy?

I don’t want to pay for things with my face

In 2020, an investigation by multiple privacy watchdogs flagged that Cadillac Fairview had used facial recognition software in twelve of its malls to convert 5 million images into numerical representations of faces, without consent, from “inconspicuous” cameras placed inside digital information kiosks. Last March, CBS reported that Fairway supermarket locations in New York City had started using biometric surveillance to deter theft, alerting shoppers with a sign in store entrances that the chain is harvesting data such as eye scans and voice prints. But the surreptitious use of facial analysis in physical spaces feels like a line is being crossed—as though existing offline, trying to buy books or socks or grapes in a brick-and-mortar store, or even just considering a transaction near a vending machine are activities that are an affront to the data mongers who always need more intel to commodify.

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