Future of Security: Face Recognition

It seems that popping into your local Tesco to purchase buy 1 get 1 free Heinz Baked Beans could soon involve having your face digitally scanned and analysed just in case you have a previous criminal conviction for theft.

Well, we guess that will prevent you from stuffing your pockets to the brim full of baked beans cans and making a run for it without paying at the self-service tills.

In a bid to crack down on in-store crime activity and potential theft from occurring, high-street retailers are turning to advanced facial recognition software to identify potential thieves by comparing scanned images of shoppers’ faces against a database of known shoplifters.

Retailers reported about 1.33% of sales were lost in 2017 to theft by employees, individual shoplifters, or organised retail criminals, which can amount to millions of pounds in lost sales.

While stores would still be manned by security guards and CCTV operations, the facial recognition technology would act as a further deterrent from theft occurring within store.

With facial recognition in smartphones now a common place it seems that others are less then pleased as to having their identity potentially scanned and analysed as they walk down the fruit and vegetable isle.

Critics of facial recognition software have cited privacy as a major concern, as well as potential misuse of the technology in which government bureaucrats could enter a person’s name into a database and get a record of where they have been and their financial status, amongst other miscellaneous personal information.

The exact number of retailers currently using facial recognition cameras in their stores is unclear. But allegedly a number of UK high-street retailers and supermarkets have shown interest in this advanced security technology and may be in the initial implementing process as we speak.

What are your thoughts on this proposed facial recognition technology? And how do you see it changing the face of security operations within retail?

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