Brit supermarket giant triples down on facial recog to nab shoplifters

The UK's second largest supermarket is tripling the number of stores that use facial recognition to try to clamp down on shoplifters - a move privacy campaigners are branding as "shameful." Sainsbury's first trialed the tech at premises in Sydenham and Bath Oldfield Park from September last year, before deploying it to shops across London earlier in 2026. More than 55 Sainsbury's supermarkets use the technology. Facial recognition will be extended to up to 200 stores by the end of 2026, according to Sainsbury's, which claimed that 90 percent of people identified through the system did not return to the store. The Sainsbury's system is provided by Facewatch. Other customers include supermarkets Budgens, Costcutter, Southern Co-op, and Spar, as well as retailers B&M and Sports Direct. Big Brother Watch said the deployment is among the biggest expansions of facial recognition "surveillance" in the UK and has "very serious consequences for our privacy rights." It urged shoppers to take their business elsewhere. Director Silkie Carlo said the campaign group was being contacted by more and more shoppers trying to clear their names after being subjected to "serious facial recognition mistakes." Earlier this year at a Sainsbury's branch in London's Elephant and Castle, Warren Rajah, a sales employee at tech reseller CDW, was wrongly booted from the premises after staff apparently responded to an alert for a different person on the system's watchlist. Rajah talked of public "humiliation" and asked: "Am I supposed to walk around fearful that I might be misidentified as a criminal?" Sainsbury's told The Register at the time it had apologized for the mishap and promised to further train staff on the use of the tech. "This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store," it said. Carlo said: "Innocent shoppers should not have to submit to Orwellian identity checks just to buy a loaf of bread or pick up nappies. The mass rollout of live facial recognition across Sainsbury's stores is a shameful decision that treats customers like suspects, putting millions of law-abiding people at serious risk of privacy intrusions and humiliating false shoplifting accusations. "Sainsbury's and the police can legitimately target shoplifters but have no right to take face scans from millions of ordinary customers. Sainsbury's should halt its decision to roll out live facial recognition immediately and listen to customers' concerns." The Register has asked the supermarket to comment. Use of facial recognition is also expanding in policing across Britain despite longstanding concerns over bias and false positives. (R)