Rite Aid has been using facial recognition tech across hundreds of its stores

[Polycount]

(Lack of) privacy: When you think about the use of facial recognition technology, you probably associate it with law enforcement, airport security, and machine learning. However, in certain portions of New York and Los Angeles (among other locations), drugstore chain Rite Aid has been taking advantage of the technology for its own purposes.

This information came to light through a recent investigation by Reuters. During the site's probe, investigative journalists found that a whopping 200 Rite Aid locations used facial recognition technology to detect potential criminals, such as robbers or shoplifters.

The cameras are not inconspicuous -- they are easily visible, and "easily recognizable," according to Reuters. Indeed, in several cases, Rite Aid security even demonstrated to the outlet's reporters how the technology works, and what it's used for.

In short, the cameras look for matches between customers entering the store and those "previously observed engaging in potential criminal activity." If a match is found, Reuters says an "alert" is sent to the smartphones of Rite Aid security personnel, at which point they can inspect the match and determine whether or not it's a false positive. If the match is accurate, the worker might ask the individual to leave if deemed necessary.

Reuters says that, of the 75 stores it visited, the overwhelming majority of the ones that had recognition tech deployed were located in poorer areas or areas with a higher concentration of people of color. According to the site, Rite Aids in "whiter" and richer neighborhoods were less likely to house the technology.

After reaching out to Rite Aid with its findings, the company claimed it had already stopped using its facial recognition software, and followed up by stating that the cameras had been shut off entirely. This decision was reportedly prompted by a "larger industry conversation" surrounding facial recognition and its potential privacy impact.

However, the timing of the shutdown suggests the move was a bit more reactive than the company lets on. Nonetheless, it's still a win for privacy proponents, though it remains to be seen whether Rite Aid will attempt to revive the practice down the line.

Image credit: Reuters

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86165-rite-aid-has-using-facial-recognition-tech-across.html

 

[sorten]

Maybe they could rig up an air gun in tandem with this setup to shoot tranquilizer darts at people who aren't wearing masks. Then it can text security personnel so they can drag those shoppers out into the alley.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

#1 Wear a mask
#2 wear sunglasses
#3 wear a baseball cap.

 

[Arbie]

Maybe they could rig up an air gun in tandem with this setup to shoot tranquilizer darts at people who aren't wearing masks. Then it can text security personnel so they can drag those shoppers out into the alley.

Which they would deserve, for spreading the virus when they could have helped to stop it.

 

[yRaz]

previously observed engaging in potential criminal activity

so they don't even have evidence that you have previously committed a crime? I will be switching using riteaid as my pharmacy.

 

[Hexic]

So it’s almost like... there’s more crime... in low income areas... that demographically are populated with people of color.

It’s so logical that you would utilize anti-theft services in higher crime areas... but nope. Probably racism, or something.

 

[abysal]

So it’s almost like... there’s more crime... in low income areas... that demographically are populated with people of color.

It’s so logical that you would utilize anti-theft services in higher crime areas... but nope. Probably racism, or something.

Ha!!

 

[Eldritch]

So it’s almost like... there’s more crime... in low income areas... that demographically are populated with people of color.

It’s so logical that you would utilize anti-theft services in higher crime areas... but nope. Probably racism, or something.

You make a good point and we will all agree here, since it's a tech site and we love data.

But what about news, media and talk shows? They abhor data and will make everything a race issue whether justified or not. Riteaid knows it well and is trying to just nip this in the bud before their glasses start to break or their stores liberated of their goods.
That would be really ironic.

 

[Irata]

So it’s almost like... there’s more crime... in low income areas... that demographically are populated with people of color.

It’s so logical that you would utilize anti-theft services in higher crime areas... but nope. Probably racism, or something.

Funny thing is they visited 75 Rite Aid stores in Manhattan and in the Metro LA areas. About 34 stores had facial recognition if I decipher the chart correctly:

https://I.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/28/22/31303850-8569753-image-a-40_1595971212328.jpg

I'd bet that most poor white people live in rural areas.

In any case, to make a proper analysis, we'd need the number for poor households in an area, the amount of shoplifting done at each store and the area's ethnic composition (just white and non-white does not cut it).

Now, if this showed that facial recognition was used in low shoplifting minority neighborhoods but not in high shoplifting white neighborhoods one could argue racism. But that data is missing.

 

[mbrowne5061]

#1 Wear a mask
#2 wear sunglasses
#3 wear a baseball cap.

#4 Gait recognition tech ID's you by the way you walk instead.

Evening wearing shoes with different sole thicknesses, or deliberately altering your gait does not trick these kinds of systems.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

So it’s almost like... there’s more crime... in low income areas... that demographically are populated with people of color.

It’s so logical that you would utilize anti-theft services in higher crime areas... but nope. Probably racism, or something.

Please tell me how much money low income/ impoverished people steal.

Then tell me how much Bernie Madoff, Wells Fargo,Trump and the average politician steals.

Thanks.

 

[Hexic]

Please tell me how much money low income/ impoverished people steal.

Then tell me how much Bernie Madoff, Wells Fargo,Trump and the average politician steals.

Thanks.

Corporate greed (or theft as you’re alluding to) doesn’t justify theft on other accounts. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and corporate greed has nothing to do with this article.

Nice try though.

 

[p51d007]

Back in the 20's, someone asked a bank robber, why he robbed banks.
He said, because that is where the money is.
Same thing with this. It's not the high income neighborhoods that have crime.
It's the inner city LOW income/no income areas that have crime, which is why
Rite-Aid put this into place.

 

[Danny101]

It's a classic left-wing media race-baiting story designed to elicit hate, That's just the facts. Obviously, different demographics carry different attitudes on social issues. It is quantifiable and accurate to reveal and state that inner city neighborhood residents are far more likely to resort to the steal versus a low-income white farmer in a rural community, That's just the reality of it. Rite-Aid made the decision based on loss prevention and that's what the numbers told them and they were reacting to those numbers. If the issues are occurring in a minority community, then that's on them as a people. They can't have it both ways. "We are special when it suits us and we are not special when it suits us". Sure, arguments can be made on how these conditions had developed, but that doesn't make it's Rite-Aid's or any other company's fault or racist for simply trying to protect their investment, This is the false equivalency argument that so many are sick and tired of coming from the Left and is nothing but political pandering, virtual signaling, commercializing hate stoking in order to create their so-called socialist utopia, I would dare say that it IS the liberals, progressives, and socialists fault for creating the conditions that plague the inner-cities today. And when they are called on the carpet, they want to blame the pig capitalist republicans instead of OWNING UP to their creation of the problem.

Having said that, I still deem the facial recognizing technology as a privacy issue and they were correct for pointing it out. But stop with the racist BS. It belies obviously the real intent of the story. It seems that the privacy issue is just a pretext for the race narrative they're really after. And liberal progressives are wondering why or just can't seem to figure out how Trump got the support he did.

People, including people of color, are sick and tired of the false socialist utopia and the race-baiting that goes along with it, used for creating chaos to bring down the system, It isn't capitalism, but the central bank system that needs to be brought down and which is the cause by allowing easy corruption and a lot of misery, in the U.S. and around the world. Communism sounds nice in theory but still allows those on the top to become corrupt and those on the bottom to confuse capitalism as a problem when it's the central bank system and the controllers that is the problem, It's the matrix, sleight of hand. Every country needs to root them out.

Here's an enlightening read by someone who was a part of the liberal progressive academics, from which many of their policies are hatched and have since sought to educate us on their flawed precepts. Try reading before you comment.

Blame the welfare state, not racism, for poor blacks' problems: Thomas Sowell

In a world where the truth means so little, and headstrong preconceptions seem to be all that matter, what hope is there for rational words or rational behavior, much less mutual understanding across racial lines?

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