‘Shaking from head to toe’ — How the facial recognition blame game leaves shoppers stranded

Facial recognition is an inherently personal and intimate technology.

The event, sponsored by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, was designed to give people an opportunity to air their grievances with politicians, the media, and the companies involved.

It also invited representatives from Sainsbury’s, a company that is currently in the process of introducing facial recognition to 200 of its stores.

Facewatch said it gave the invitation “serious consideration” but cited concerns about the balance of the event “given the tone of Big Brother Watch’s campaign messaging to date”.

When TechRadar visited a South London Sainsbury’s earlier this month, we found that there was no viable way of opting out of the facial recognition system and that security had little information about how the system works.