NEW YORK (WCBS) – Shoppers are reacting to the news that Wegmans will now be using facial scanning technology in some stores.
Shoppers at a Wegmans supermarket at Broadway and 8th Street in New York City are greeted, not just by the produce section, but by a new sign warning the store is scanning customers’ faces and storing information to help identify them.
“It’s kind of invading privacy. I could see that. It’s good and bad,” shopper Victor Cash said.
”You never know for what purpose the information is being collected,” fellow customer Ivan Klimkou added.
Wegmans said the change is all about safety and security, and the cameras with facial recognition tools are in a small number of stores to identify people who’ve been previously flagged for misconduct.
“Of course stores are trying to prevent that. At the same time, it kind of puts the privacy of the person at risk,” Klimkou added.
“It could be a little nuisance, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it’ll ever stop me from coming here,” Cash said.
Many have seen facial recognition tools at the airport, but at some supermarkets, like Fairway and now Wegmans, the cameras are often out of sight.
The New York City Council has been considering banning the practice since 2023 after the owner of Madison Square Garden started using it to block attorneys from events at venues if their law firms were involved in cases against them.
“If there is a hack or a breach of that data, you can’t change your face like you would change a password,” Michelle Dahl said.
Dahl is the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that fights for consumer privacy.
“It’s also a civil rights issue,” Dahl said. “We know that these systems disproportionately misidentify and burden communities that are already targeted by police most often.”
Wegmans said it understands concerns about fairness or bias, and facial recognition systems are just one of several investigative tools it uses.
The supermarket chain would not agree to an interview, but sent a statement that said the company “never shares the data it collects with any third party.”
The company also said it eventually disposes of the images, but a spokesperson couldn’t reveal how long they hold onto them due to security concerns.
“They probably do that in airports, too, right? And this is more important than an airport because it’s a part of my daily life,” shopper Jeff Miller said.
Customers can like it or not, the bar code on milk isn’t the only thing getting scanned now.
“I mean, I’m not shoplifting, so it’s no concern for me,” Klimkou said.
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