Facial recognition technology used by US drug chain Rite Aid's accused innocent shoppers of theft, often in a racially discriminatory manner, resulting in a regulatory investigation and the system's closure.

Rite Aid failed to impose reasonable precautions in its deployment of facial recognition in hundreds of stores from 2012 to 2020, resulting in thousands of false-positive matches with customers accused of shoplifting and other inappropriate behaviour, according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

The regulator also said Rite Aid's technology unfairly targeted Black, Hispanic and female customers, was mostly deployed in neighborhoods that were located in 'plurality non-White areas,' and that incidents 'disproportionately' impacting people of colour. 

Rite Aid’s actions 'subjected consumers to embarrassment, harassment, and other harm', according to the complaint. 

The FTC banned Rite Aid from using facial recognition for five years and imposed multiple security and privacy obligations on the retailer.

Timeline ⏰

• 2012 to 2020. Rite Aid deploys and operates the facial recognition technology in its retail stores across the United States.

• 2020. Rite Aid halts the use of the facial recognition program.

• December 2023. The FTC announces a settlement with Rite Aid prohibiting the company from using facial recognition technology for five years.

Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️

• Federal Trade Commission v Rite Aid

• Federal Trade Commission (2023). Rite Aid Banned from Using AI Facial Recognition After FTC Says Retailer Deployed Technology without Reasonable Safeguards

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/19/ftc-rite-aid-facial-recognition/

• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/rite-aid-ai-facial-recognition.html

• https://www.reuters.com/technology/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-2023-12-19/

• https://abcnews.go.com/Business/rite-aid-banned-facial-recognition-stores-after-thousands/story

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/20/rite-aid-shoplifting-facial-recognition-ftc-settlement

• https://futurism.com/the-byte/rite-aid-facial-recognition-shoppers