{
  "id": "R-2168",
  "title": "Facial recognition shoplifting watch-list falsely flagged customers, Rite Aid, United States, 2012–2020",
  "short_title": "Rite Aid face recognition falsely flags customers",
  "jurisdiction": {
    "country": "United States",
    "region": null,
    "level": "national"
  },
  "domain": "other",
  "system_type": "face_recognition",
  "system_name": "Rite Aid facial recognition system",
  "deployed_by": "Rite Aid Corporation",
  "year_start": 2012,
  "year_end": 2020,
  "harm_type": "mixed",
  "subject_count_estimate": null,
  "subject_identification": "anonymous_collective",
  "oversight_trigger": "regulatory_enforcement",
  "oversight_date": "2023-12-19",
  "remedy_status": "partial",
  "documentation_status": "verified",
  "summary_50w": "Rite Aid used facial recognition in hundreds of US stores, matching shoppers against a database of tens of thousands of often low-quality images of 'persons of interest'. False matches led staff to follow, search, expel or accuse customers, including an 11-year-old girl. Stores using the system were disproportionately in non-White areas. The FTC's proposed order banned Rite Aid from facial recognition surveillance for five years.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "FTC’s Rite Aid Ruling Rightly Renews Scrutiny of Face Recognition",
      "url": "https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/ftcs-rite-aid-ruling-rightly-renews-scrutiny-face-recognition",
      "publisher": "Electronic Frontier Foundation",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-21",
      "is_primary": false,
      "notes": "Originating report"
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Rite Aid Banned from Using AI Facial Recognition After FTC Says Retailer Deployed Technology without Reasonable Safeguards",
      "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-after-ftc-says-retailer-deployed-technology-without",
      "publisher": "U.S. Federal Trade Commission",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-10-10",
      "is_primary": true
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Rite Aid Corporation, FTC v. (case proceedings, complaint and order)",
      "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/2023190-rite-aid-corporation-ftc-v",
      "publisher": "U.S. Federal Trade Commission",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-10-10",
      "is_primary": true
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Coming face to face with Rite Aid's allegedly unfair use of facial recognition technology",
      "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2023/12/coming-face-face-rite-aids-allegedly-unfair-use-facial-recognition-technology",
      "publisher": "U.S. Federal Trade Commission (Business Blog)",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-10-10",
      "is_primary": true
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "facial_recognition_misid",
    "retail_surveillance",
    "ftc_enforcement",
    "racial_disparity",
    "false_positive",
    "biometric_data"
  ],
  "extraction_metadata": {
    "first_collected": "2026-04-21T11:43:12.136714+00:00",
    "last_verified": "2026-10-10T16:06:44.084191+00:00",
    "verified_by": "human_review"
  }
}