Big Brother Watch is supporting the legal complaint made by a 62-year-old woman against Facewatch and Home Bargains. The woman was wrongly blacklisted by facial recognition after staff at Home Bargains falsely accused her of stealing a pack of paracetamol worth a mere 39p.
The woman is now “scared to go shopping alone and tearful even remembering what she went through”, according to her daughter.
Big Brother Watch’s senior advocacy officer, Madeleine Stone, told the Guardian that “Home Bargains and Facewatch are adding customers to secret watchlists with no due process, meaning innocent people are being falsely accused, grossly mistreated and blacklisted from shops.”
“The government must urgently step in and stop retailers from subjecting shoppers to this Orwellian and discriminatory technology.”