Sainsbury’s starts facial recognition of customers to tackle shoplifters

Sinsbury’s began to test the controversial face recognition technology in the UK supermarkets to capture thieves.

Britain’s second largest supermarket, potentially launched an eight -week trial in two stores as part of a print on a crime before launching a country -wide technology.

In the midst of an increase in retail crime with official figures published in July, it increased the number of theft crimes registered in England and Wales to a record level last year.

According to the National Statistics Office (Ones), approximately 530,643 crimes in 2024-25 years, 2024-25, an increase of 20 percent from 444.022 in 2002-03 since the highest total and the highest total total of existing police records.

Simon Roberts, the general manager of the retailer, said, “The retail sector is at a intersection, faced with increasing abuse, antisocial behavior and violence. First of all, we should put security.”

However, the privacy campaignists opposed the movement and called on to leave the hearing of the supermarket.

Supermarket works with facewatch and plans to start using the technology in a shop in London this week and in another shop in Bath.

The shops, including Sports Direct and Costmutter, use face recognition to describe shops. However, this was criticized by deputies and campaignists.

The Privacy Rights Group Big Brother Watch labeled this as “deep disproportionate and creepy .. The group’s senior defender officer, Madeleine Stone said: “Orwellian in Sinsbury’s shops, the decision to try the face recognition technology deeply disproportionate and creepy.

“Sinsbury should leave this case and take steps urgently to prevent the uncontrolled spread of this invading technology.”

Sinsbury’s said that the hearing was not about özleme watching our colleagues or valuable customers ”, and instead, Roberts added Roberts to defining serious criminals who only actions of violence, aggression or theft”.

The company said that if the software did not recognize the face of the reported individuals, the records will be deleted instantly. He added that the system has published a warning based on criminal behaviors presented by the store or other retailers using Facewatch.

Joanne Thomas, the Secretary General of the USDAW Union, said: uz We welcome the work program that continues to protect Sainsbury’s retail employees and customers from the threat of constant abuse and violence in stores.

“We look forward to seeing the results of the experiment of the face recognition software, and we will continue to work closely with Sinsbury’s to support a retail -led approach to the fight against crime.”