“Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States, in one of the largest rollouts of such technology among retailers in the country...” https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-riteaid-software/

“Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, according to a Reuters analysis.”

“The retailer defended the technology’s use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence.”

Rite Aid: customers were “apprised of the technology through ‘signage’ at the shops, as well as in a written policy posted this year on its website. Reporters found no notice of the surveillance in more than a third of the stores it visited with the facial recognition cameras.”

Areas where Black folks/POC were the largest population were 3x as likely to have the tech installed. Time and time again it’s clear that these technologies are disproportionately deployed against and harm marginalized populations.

“Rite Aid said the rollout was ‘data-driven,’ based on stores’ theft histories, local and national crime data and site infrastructure.”

“Some security experts said any program with connections to China was troubling because it could open the door to aggressive surveillance in the United States more typical of an autocratic state.”

Ugh. This whole part needs unpacking. Will hopefully revisit when I have more time

But will just say—in 2020 if your experts are still looking elsewhere for examples of an “autocratic nation” you need to talk to some different “experts.”

It's not just Rite Aid. It's Home Depot, Menards, Walmart....

"FaceFirst’s chief executive, Peter Trepp, said facial recognition generally works well irrespective of skin tone, an issue he said the industry addressed years ago."

This article has a whole section called "The China connection" and....wtf.