"MPs condemn Frasers Group’s use of facial recognition cameras in stores," 23 April 2023.

Almost 50 MPs and peers have written to Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, the corporate owner of the tycoon’s retail portfolio including House of Fraser and Sports Direct, condemning the use of “live facial recognition” cameras in the group’s stores.

Describing the technology as “invasive and discriminatory”, the parliamentarians, a cross-party collection including David Davis, John McDonnell and Tim Farron, have urged the group to end the use of the cameras across the country.

“Live facial recognition [LFR] technology has well-evidenced issues with privacy, inaccuracy, and race and gender discrimination. LFR inverts the vital democratic principle of suspicion preceding surveillance and treats everyone who passes the camera like a potential criminal,” the letter argues...

...The letter, which was coordinated and co-signed by the privacy groups Big Brother Watch, Liberty and Privacy International, argues that as well as being wrong on principle, facial recognition technology is also “inaccurate and ineffective”. “To date, 87% of alerts generated by the Metropolitan police’s own live facial recognition system have been inaccurate. The poor accuracy of LFR technology also disproportionately impacts people of colour and women.” ...

...Frasers Group has been contacted for comment. Previously a spokesperson has said surveillance is carried out to “ensure the safety of our staff and to help prevent theft”.

In March, it was revealed that Sports Direct and Flannels, two of the brands operated by Frasers Group, were already using the cameras in at least 27 stores. The cameras scan the faces of every shopper, and check them against a database of suspected shoplifters, in an attempt to pre-emptively flag and either monitor or evict those who may cause trouble.

If staff desire, they can add the face of any visitor to the database as a “subject of interest”, and monitor them for up to a year. No criminal conviction is necessary, and shoppers can be added to the database on suspicion only...