FTC bans Rite Aid from using facial recognition technology

The Rite Aid pharmacy chain can’t use facial recognition technology to identify customers for five years after a Federal Trade Commission investigation found the company inappropriately used it to criminally profile customers.

The FTC described Rite Aid’s use of facial recognition as reckless, saying it repeatedly left customers at risk. Besides the five-year ban, Rite Aid must delete information gathered with the technology and develop a new data security system.

The report pointed out Tuesday that the company failed to inform customers that Rite Aid was collecting their data.

With the help of the technology, Rite Aid created a watchlist with pictures of customers who allegedly engaged in criminal activity inside stores. When a customer on the watchlist would enter the store, employees would receive a ping on their phones informing them. Employees would then approach and identify customers and ask them to leave.

The pictures captured by the technology were often of poor quality, leading to several false positives, according to the FTC.

The FTC pointed out how the technology disproportionately affected minorities. According to the report, Rite Aid’s facial recognition data resulted in more false positives in Black and Asian communities than in White ones.

Rite Aid said it no longer uses facial recognition.

“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,” the firm said.