It was recently announced that some retailers in the US would be using facial recognition in order to monitor people in their stores.

Indeed, it was reported that retails giants such as Macy’s, Ace Hardware, and Lowe’s are using facial recognition technology to monitor everyone working or shopping in their stores. Many civil rights groups are then calling for the companies to stop doing so.

The groups have stated that constant surveillance, tracking, and data collection go against human rights to privacy. Consumers and employees should have the right to enter stores without being monitored and scanned by surveillance systems.

Retailers have however declared that they were using the software for security and operational purposes such as preventing theft. But how far can it go if the software starts targeting vulnerable people or wrongfully accuse people of crimes?

To counter this, the groups have created an online scorecard with all the retailers currently using facial recognition software. They also made a petition asking retailers to ban facial recognition in their stores.