Highlights
- Warren Rajah wrongly identified and escorted from Elephant and Castle Sainsbury's by staff.
- Facewatch facial recognition system claims 99.98 per cent accuracy in recognising offenders.
- Incident blamed on human error rather than technology failure.
The 42-year-old entered the Elephant and Castle branch on Tuesday when two staff members and a security guard approached him, confiscated his shopping and escorted him from the building.
Staff pointed to signage indicating the store used facial recognition technology when questioned.
Warren told Metro, "They came up to me and asked to see my 'bar code'. I didn't know what this meant so I just showed them my Nectar card.
Then they told me to leave. It was the most humiliating moment of my life, being escorted out the place I have shopped in for 10 years in front of my community."
Technology versus reality
The supermarket uses cameras operated by Facewatch, which claims 99.98 per cent accuracy in recognising offenders.
The company describes itself as "the only crime prevention tool that proactively identifies known criminals, allowing staff to act before a crime has been committed".
To prove his innocence, Warren submitted a subject access request to Facewatch, providing a photograph and passport copy.
He told Metro "This just feels like a massive invasion of my privacy. Why should I be proving I am innocent to them? I started panicking massively because I don't know anything about this company or what they do."
Both Sainsbury's and Facewatch attributed the incident to human error by staff who approached the wrong person, rather than system failure.
Facewatch stated "This incident arose from a case of human error in-store, where a member of staff approached the wrong customer.
Our Data Protection team followed the usual process to confirm his identity and verified that he was not on our database."
Apology offered
Sainsbury's contacted Warren to apologise and offered a £75 voucher, though he questioned what impact such incidents might have on vulnerable individuals.
The incident highlights growing concerns about facial recognition deployment across London by police and retailers, with the Metropolitan Police already facing legal challenges over the technology.
Warren warned "However perfect the technology may be, it still relies on there to be human intervention.
And if people are not trained to properly manage and handle and make the right decisions, you will always end up with innocent people being hurt."
A Sainsbury's spokesperson noted "We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store.
This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store."
