At grocery stores, shopping with a side of biometric surveillance

The grocery store chain Wegmans has been under fire over its use of biometric technology. The store recently posted signs at some stores in New York City alerting customers that information is being collected on them through facial recognition technology.

But they’re not exactly pioneering new tactics here. This type of digital surveillance is becoming a more common practice across the retail sector.

And before businesses had cameras to keep an eye on shoplifters, they had notes. “You know they had a book behind the cash register,” said John Talbott, a lecturer of marketing at Indiana University. “And they knew who the people were who were high potential for stealing something from the store.”

These days, cameras track eye movements, voice patterns and gait. Talbott says the technology also helps offer new services to customers, including checkout-less checkout.

Amazon uses palm-to-pay technology at some Amazon Go and Whole Foods Stores. “You know, checkout is friction in the process,” Talbott said.

Convenience often comes with costs, and in this case, that can mean actual monetary ones.

“Companies are going to try to make sure that they charge us the maximum amount possible that we’re willing to tolerate every single time we go to the cash register,” said Woodrow Hartzog, a law professor at Boston University. 

Retailers might learn this through data on, say, how long we linger in the cookie aisle deciding between off-brand Oreos and the real thing.

“We don’t realize how useful it is to companies but also how vulnerable it can make us in terms of exposure,” Hartzog said.

Creepy personal data stuff aside, the technology can be flawed. Rite Aid has been temporarily banned from using AI facial recognition after its system falsely targeted women and people of color as shoplifters. 

But there aren’t a lot of ways for concerned shoppers to opt out.

“Basically you’re forced to either not go to the supermarket where this stuff is on by default, or give up your data,” said Aaron Martin, a data scientist at the University of Virginia. “So I think the idea of a sort of meaningful choice is unrealistic.” 

There’s currently no federal rule that requires retailers to disclose customer surveillance. Privacy laws vary by city and state.