Biometric security company Facewatch will provide its technology to UK retailer Iceland. News of a new client comes only a week after the facial recognition provider faced accusations of mistaking an innocent woman for a shoplifter at two Home Bargains stores.
Iceland began testing the technology in two of its stores in Bradford and Salford this week, in preparation for a wider rollout. The frozen foods supermarket chain plans to deploy the facial recognition software in six stores by October 2025 with further implementation expected. The retailer says it followed a “robust due diligence process” while the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has reviewed Facewatch’s technology.
Facewatch’s biometric surveillance system compares the faces of customers entering stores with a database containing suspected retail criminals, including individuals thought to have committed offenses at other stores within the Facewatch retail network, which includes stores from Budgens, Fraser Group and more. If there is a biometric match, the store’s staff is alerted. Faces that do not result in a match are immediately deleted, according to The Grocer.
To add people to the database, retailers can upload an image of a suspect and complete a formal witness statement, which is reviewed by Facewatch. The potential shortcomings of this process, however, were revealed last week when the biometric company admitted that its system wrongly added a woman named Danielle Horan to its shoplifter watchlist.
