Sainsbury’s highlighted recent British Retail Consortium figures showing 1,600 daily incidents of violence and abuse against shopworkers nationwide, up significantly from 455 a day in 2019-20.<\/p>\n
The retailer added that initial trials of the facial recognition system across two stores resulted in a 46% reduction in logged incidents of theft and anti-social behaviour, with over 90% of offenders not returning.<\/p>\n
Silkie Carlo, the director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, has called for Sainsbury’s to scrap the technology, arguing that it is “treating customers like criminals”.<\/p>\n
“Serious mistakes like this are inevitable when a national retailer does hundreds of thousands of ID checks indiscriminately with this sinister surveillance tech,” she said.<\/p>\n
Arnold, who donated a \u00a3150 goodwill voucher from Sainsbury’s to a local food bank, questioned why the system remains active elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“If they’re suspending it in this East Dulwich store, they are conceding there’s a problem with it. Why aren’t they suspending it in every store?”<\/p>\n
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