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Rite Aid Banned From Using Facial Recognition Software 60

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Rite Aid has been banned from using facial recognition software for five years, after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that the U.S. drugstore giant's "reckless use of facial surveillance systems" left customers humiliated and put their "sensitive information at risk." The FTC's Order (PDF), which is subject to approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court after Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, also instructs Rite Aid to delete any images it collected as part of its facial recognition system rollout, as well as any products that were built from those images. The company must also implement a robust data security program to safeguard any personal data it collects.

A Reuters report from 2020 detailed how the drugstore chain had secretly introduced facial recognition systems across some 200 U.S. stores over an eight-year period starting in 2012, with "largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods" serving as the technology testbed. With the FTC's increasing focus on the misuse of biometric surveillance, Rite Aid fell firmly in the government agency's crosshairs. Among its allegations are that Rite Aid -- in partnership with two contracted companies -- created a "watchlist database" containing images of customers that the company said had engaged in criminal activity at one of its stores. These images, which were often poor quality, were captured from CCTV or employees' mobile phone cameras.

When a customer entered a store who supposedly matched an existing image on its database, employees would receive an automatic alert instructing them to take action -- and the majority of the time this instruction was to "approach and identify," meaning verifying the customer's identity and asking them to leave. Often, these "matches" were false positives that led to employees incorrectly accusing customers of wrongdoing, creating "embarrassment, harassment, and other harm," according to the FTC. "Employees, acting on false positive alerts, followed consumers around its stores, searched them, ordered them to leave, called the police to confront or remove consumers, and publicly accused them, sometimes in front of friends or family, of shoplifting or other wrongdoing," the complaint reads. Additionally, the FTC said that Rite Aid failed to inform customers that facial recognition technology was in use, while also instructing employees to specifically not reveal this information to customers.
In a press release, Rite Aid said that it was "pleased to reach an agreement with the FTC," but that it disagreed with the crux of the allegations.

"The allegations relate to a facial recognition technology pilot program the Company deployed in a limited number of stores," Rite Aid said in its statement. "Rite Aid stopped using the technology in this small group of stores more than three years ago, before the FTC's investigation regarding the Company's use of the technology began."
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Rite Aid Banned From Using Facial Recognition Software

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  • A Reuters report from 2020 detailed how the drugstore chain had secretly introduced facial recognition systems across some 200 U.S. stores over an eight-year period starting in 2012, with "largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods" serving as the technology testbed.

    Or maybe they chose stores with high shoplifting rates, i.e. something relevant to their goal instead of relevant to a ideological propagandist at Reuters.

    • It's the US, it's just as likely, "Do it in the [x] neighborhood, nobody will care" where 'x' can be 'black' or 'poor'.

      Let's do some math!

      Statistically the US is about 60% white and 12% black. 8.6% of American whites live in poverty compared to 17% for blacks. That means there are over twice as many poor white people as poor black people, simply because there are so many more whites.

      To deploy something to "largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods" sure as hell looks like you're targeting blacks, beca

    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday December 21, 2023 @12:09AM (#64095215)
      That facial recognition software has a high rate of false positives with black skin. This goes all the way back to the Xbox Kinect having a tough time with darker skin tones and it's a problem that has never been solved even on much more sophisticated hardware.

      As a direct result it was inevitable that a large percentage of African-American customers who had done absolutely nothing wrong would be asked to leave. That's not race-baiting that's just facts it make you personally uncomfortable.

      As always facts don't care about your feelings and reality has a left-wing bias. But I'm sure you knew all this when you put your post up. It's a remarkably low effort troll post that you put up as quickly as possible so you could be at the top of the thread and get a few upvotes.
    • Or maybe they chose stores with high shoplifting rates, i.e. something relevant to their goal instead of relevant to an ideological propagandist at Reuters

      That still doesn't explain, let alone justify, the profiling of innocent customers. That's how you lose customers.

      But we hear your rant, loud and clear. You do you, bo.

    • Or maybe ... (some unsubstantiated bullshit)...

      "I can't prove it, but I can say it." - Stephen Colbert

  • by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @11:57PM (#64095197)

    They targeted thieves. The situation led to misidentification. OK. Still, the entire process was justified.

    35 years ago, I toured a casino behind the scenes. The entire place was covered in cameras that could zoom in and see every single person and every single hand. Human beings monitored who came in and out, identifying cheaters. It was 100% justified.

    I'm sad our local RiteAid shut. The workers and pharmacy staff all delivered great service. Now I'm even sadder.

    Racism is real, but this false alarm BS is just pissing me off.

    • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

      They targeted thieves. The situation led to misidentification. OK. Still, the entire process was justified.

      That's pretty much the opposite of what Benjamin Franklin said. [wikipedia.org]

      • by Entrope ( 68843 )

        In Franklin's version, what makes a person guilty? Once you answer that, why should society allow 100 criminals to continue to make new victims? To make the idea clear, would you rather imprison 100 murderers and one innocent person, or none of them?

        It is morally bankrupt to take that as an unqualified axiom.

        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          The rationale is clearly expressed in various writings of the time. While they more usually said 10 guilty than 1 innocent, the argument holds.

          If actual innocence cannot protect you from conviction, where is the incentive to be actually innocent? How can an actually innocent person feel secure if at any time they might be tried and convicted? In such a situation, the police and the courts become just yet another band of thugs you might fall victim to.

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          In Franklin's version, what makes a person guilty? Once you answer that, why should society allow 100 criminals to continue to make new victims? To make the idea clear, would you rather imprison 100 murderers and one innocent person, or none of them?

          It is morally bankrupt to take that as an unqualified axiom.

          I'm sure you'll think differently if you're the 1 innocent person in jail.

          How would your life be if say tomorrow you were arrested and instead of celebrating the holidays, you got to spend it in a damn

          • by Entrope ( 68843 )

            Yes, you are very righteously outraged, I am super impressed (/s). What if you or your loved ones are the next victim of one of those murderers that went free? Isn't catching criminals one of the main functions of the government?

    • ... Still, the entire process was justified.

      Because someone, somewhere did something bad at Rite-aid? Descendants of slaves want to meet you. Descendants from countries invaded by European colonialists want to meet you. Their complaints against you, are totally justified.

      ... led to misidentification.

      Great. You won't complain when you're identified as a pedophile, or drug-dealer or foreign terrorist (with a fake accent). Then it will be okay to tell your friends and colleagues of your criminal status: Even better, your home address and criminal 'record' on the internet. It

      • stalk, belittle and molest

        Woah, I missed this part of the article. I thought they were simply asked to leave.

    • They targeted thieves. The situation led to misidentification. OK. Still, the entire process was justified.

      Good thing the courts disagree with you.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      They targeted thieves. The situation led to misidentification. OK. Still, the entire process was justified.

      35 years ago, I toured a casino behind the scenes. The entire place was covered in cameras that could zoom in and see every single person and every single hand. Human beings monitored who came in and out, identifying cheaters. It was 100% justified.

      I'm sad our local RiteAid shut. The workers and pharmacy staff all delivered great service. Now I'm even sadder.

      Racism is real, but this false alarm BS is just pissing me off.

      This isn't a false alarm. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.

      However your story about casinos indicates part of the problem. One of the biggest deterrents to crime is a visible law enforcement officer... or even a security guard. Shops want to cut costs by eliminating as many people as they can. Theft is largely a social problem so technological solutions are largely useless as humans are not making the decisions.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      Of course, the casinos ALSO banned people who were just too good at it.

      It becomes much more serious when the activity is non-optional (gambling is just one form of recreation, but you may actually NEED a prescription) and the ban comes with an explicit public criminal accusation.

    • they targeted whoever the facial recognition software happened to pick, which because of software limitations tended to be African Americans with a very high rate of false positives. Meaning that a large number of black folk who had done nothing wrong were chased away from stores. Basically a digital form of institutional racism.

      This is all extremely well known and documented. Do even a little bit of googling and you'll find reams of articles and scientific journals about the problems facial recognition
    • Still, the entire process was justified.

      Sure, the process itself is justified; however, the results are absolutely NOT justified. Some of the people caught up in the process were entirely innocent. That is 100% unacceptable.

      Fix the process.

      • by I75BJC ( 4590021 )
        I wonder how many Rite-Aid stores will close because of this restriction/punishment?
        And how many people will be denied access to Rite-Aid (and other stores)?
        I write "punishment" because the OP's blurb doesn't say that the USA Federal Government requires Rite-Aid to develop a functional system but The Federal Government required Rite-Aid to stop trying to reduce crime against their stores. Rite-Aid and its customers are the losers.
        Every system can be improved and, in other areas, the Federal Government re
  • by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Thursday December 21, 2023 @08:05AM (#64095665) Homepage

    In principle I don't see an issue with a private store having facial recognition to identify potential shoplifters. Walk into any corner store in NYC and you'll see the cashier has a list of names or photos of people that are not welcome. This is just an automated version.

    The problem to me is that Rite Aid used it in really irresponsible ways. First, facial recognition is known to have false positives, so relying upon it to stop crime is ridiculous. The fact that this wasn't shut down immediately upon the first false positive tells you what Rite Aid thinks of their customer base. Second, asking store employees to confront people that are "recognized" by the facial recognition, even if those people aren't actively engaged in shoplifting, endangers the employees and legally exposes Rite Aid. I'm shocked the company doesn't have a legal division that could see this problem coming from a mile away.

    • I'm shocked the company doesn't have a legal division that could see this problem coming from a mile away.

      Maybe they do, and they decided the money saved from reduced shoplifting was greater than any future fee.
      Or maybe the legal team said the worst "problem", that they could see from a mile away, is that they would be banned from facial recognition software in the future. Aka the story we are commenting on. Who knows.

  • by SmaryJerry ( 2759091 ) on Thursday December 21, 2023 @01:05PM (#64096491)
    In Washington State it feels like police don't even exist. They won't come to any call that doesn't involve a gun. If they do come they come days later and take a report, never to be heard from again. You can literally have a gps on your stolen phone or equipment and police will refuse to even validate your claim or check it out. Someone can literally walk around naked and pee or shit right on the street with multiple witnesses with no consequences. They can do drugs in the open and yell obviously insane stuff and harass you and threaten you as you get out of your car. Sometimes the police will come out immediately if you claim an assault occurred, but it will be so slow the person has already left. It's not the police's fault most of the time, it's the elected officials handicapping them. We need more police and less regulations and paperwork so police actually can do their job. When I ask police why they don't do anything they say they've been instructed to ignore any crime that isn't violent.
  • "Often, these "matches" were false positives". In other words, we can prove it happened 3 times.

  • Does Rite Aid think they're a branch of government? That's dirty. They don't need that. Never did...

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