Misidentified Sainsbury shopper warns facial recognition tech 'fascistic'

Warren Rajah, a 42-year-old data strategist, has described feeling like a "criminal" after being wrongly identified by facial recognition technology at a Sainsbury's store in Elephant and Castle. During the incident in January, staff approached Mr Rajah, confiscated his purchases, and removed him from the premises without any explanation. It later emerged that he had been mistaken for another individual present in the shop who was listed as an offender on the system.

Sainsbury's and the technology provider, Facewatch, have both apologised for the incident, attributing it to human error rather than a technical failure. Facewatch confirmed that Mr Rajah was not on its database after he submitted identity documents to verify his status. The supermarket chain, which uses the software in seven locations to combat rising retail crime, maintains that the system has a 99.98% accuracy rate and that every alert is reviewed by trained staff before action is taken.

Mr Rajah, who was offered a £75 shopping voucher as compensation, expressed significant concerns over the use of such surveillance in retail environments. He described the experience as dehumanising and questioned the lack of transparency when being excluded from a public space. He went on to say: "It's borderline fascistic as well, how can you just have something done to you and not have an understanding? How can you be excluded from a space and not have an understanding or an explanation?"

While Sainsbury's defends the technology as a necessary tool to identify shoplifters, Mr Rajah stated he no longer has any interest in shopping at the retailer and called for greater public awareness regarding the use of automated facial recognition.

Commenting on the article, Jasleen Chaggar, Legal & Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch, said: "The idea that we are all just one facial recognition mistake away from being falsely accused of a crime or ejected from a store without any explanation is deeply chilling.

"To add insult to injury, innocent people seeking remedy must jump through hoops and hand over even more personal data just to discover what they're accused of.

"In the vast majority of cases, they are offered little more than an apology when companies are finally forced to admit the tech got it wrong."

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