Lauren Wills-Dixon discusses facial recognition’s risks for retailers in The Grocer

Lauren Wills-Dixon, partner and head of privacy and data protection, has been featured in The Grocer setting out how retailers can use live facial recognition responsibly as uptake accelerates.

Responding to record levels of retail crime, with more than 500,000 shoplifting offences recorded last year, retailers are rapidly deploying the technology to protect both staff and customers.

But Lauren commented: “The difference between a system that protects staff and one that lands a retailer in difficulty isn’t just about the camera. It depends upon what happens next.

“An alert that flags a known shoplifter can never be taken as conclusive evidence that a criminal is operating within the store.

“Although continuously improving, the technology is still quite capable of misidentifying people.

“The first consideration is to ensure there is always a human in the loop to ‘referee’ the technology. No decision about whether to approach, search or ask a shopper to leave should ever rest solely on notification. The technology informs; a trained person decides.”

You can read Lauren’s comments in The Grocer here (subscription may be required).

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