Image Recognition
Sports Direct, Spar, Budgens, Costcutter and Southern Co-op are now among the growing number of British retailers using a controversial Chinese state-owned facial-recognition system. Facewatch, the UK firm which supplies the Chinese-made cameras, claims that its surveillance system is 97.8 per cent accurate at recognising faces. Under the Facewatch system, cameras scan the faces of all those who enter a shop. Independent grocery chain Southern Co-op has installed the cameras in 35 stores across Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brighton and Hove, Chichester, Southampton and London. Pictured: a Southern Co-Op in Alresford, HampshireSome Spar, Budgens, Costcutter and Nisa shops are also using them.