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R-2168 · registry record · verified 2026-10-10

Rite Aid face recognition falsely flags customers

Facial recognition shoplifting watch-list falsely flagged customers, Rite Aid, United States, 2012–2020

Where
United States
When
2012–2020
System
Rite Aid facial recognition system
Type of system
Face recognition (AI)
Used by
Rite Aid Corporation
Domain
Other
Who was affected
Individuals and a wider group
People named
Not identified
Brought to light by
Regulator, 2023-12-19
Remedy
Partial

Summary

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

  1. FTC’s Rite Aid Ruling Rightly Renews Scrutiny of Face RecognitionElectronic Frontier Foundation · Originating report
  2. Rite Aid Banned from Using AI Facial Recognition After FTC Says Retailer Deployed Technology without Reasonable SafeguardsU.S. Federal Trade Commission · primary source
  3. Rite Aid Corporation, FTC v. (case proceedings, complaint and order)U.S. Federal Trade Commission · primary source
  4. Coming face to face with Rite Aid's allegedly unfair use of facial recognition technologyU.S. Federal Trade Commission (Business Blog) · primary source

Tags

Record

First collected
2026-04-21
Last verified
2026-10-10
Verified by
Checked by the author against the sources

Cite this record

The Witnessed Sentence (2026). R-2168: Rite Aid face recognition falsely flags customers. Registry record, verified 2026-10-10. https://witnessedsentence.org/registry/r-2168/

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