Rite Aid’s ‘reckless’ use of facial recognition got it banned from using the technology in stores for five years | CNN Business

spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to News@lemmy.world – 168 points –
Rite Aid’s ‘reckless’ use of facial recognition got it banned from using the technology in stores for five years | CNN Business
cnn.com
15

Me: opens the article, expecting to read about Rite Aid catching shoplifters in the act of stealing or shortly after

Me, two minutes later reading that Rite Aid accused people "likely to steal" or preventing them from entering the store at all. WHAT THE FUCK

Welcome to modern retail, where everyone is guilty of shoplifting until proven innocent.

I’ve largely quit shopping at Rite Aid, Target, and Fred Meyer because of it.

Target does this?

Yeah. In addition to armed guards patrolling the entrances, I’ve seen them following people around, and even seen employees snooping on people like the Rite-Aid employees were.

Rite Aid said in a statement that it’s “pleased to reach an agreement” with the FTC but added that “we fundamentally disagree with the facial recognition allegations in the agency’s complaint.” The tech was a pilot program and was only used in a “limited number of stores. The test stopped more than three years ago before the FTC’s investigation began.

Ah yes, we quit breaking the law before you found out so would like to retain the ability to do it again in the future.

All of this should be illegal, everywhere, by any entity, forever.

No mention of those responsible for the policy.

John T. Standley was CEO when it started, and then Heyward Donigan for a couple years.

John Standley is the one responsible for screwing over all those people, and Heyward for continuing the abuse. Of course it wasn't just them but it's where the buck stops.

Once I had someone I'd never seen before loudly accuse me of stealing from him in a nearby store. I was working and unable to do much about it, and it was one of the most miserable, humiliating experiences I've ever had. Every single executive involved in this scheme needs to be repeatedly and randomly accused of being a thief in a public place so they see how they like it.

I hope the poor people humiliated by Rite Aid's "pilot program" sued the company's pants off.

Essentially they're just told to give it another 5 years and figure out how to make it better before using it again. So harsh.

We're going to see companies not care about until accountability actually happens. It'd be nice to see C-suite executives become accountable for their action/in-actions in running the companies with prison. Maybe there'd be a steep decline companies constantly acting against the public good without fear of meaningful consequences.

We live in a society with nearly no accountability for corporations. It is so unusual that movies are made when it happens, (Erin Brockovich) and even then, those responsible for murder walk away unscathed. From what I can find no one at PGE was ever charged with a crime.

I was just notified that my private medical information was hacked for the 3rd time in 2 years, but the corporations who have allowed that to happen face zero repercussions. Any issues are mine to deal with.

Equifax's settlement for losing their (unwilling) client's data was laughable and the company responded to every contact with a sales pitch pushing additional products at additional cost. People are still dealing with the identity theft issues from Equifax's breach.

Ford only had to provide $300-$500 vouchers for building Explorers that were prone to roll over and those vouchers could only be redeemed if used for the purchase of another Ford.

CVS's computers were deliberate set up to force automatic refills. The option would turn itself on no matter often it was disabled, and even if it was off, staff were told to automatically refill prescriptions if a renewal was on file. I regularly received prescriptions I did not order and had to change pharmacies because there was no other way to get them to stop. It took a full decade for California to finally take action against the company. I imagine most other states still let CVS do as they please.

IMO There will be no significant corporate accountability in any of our lifetimes. We'd need to move to the E.U for that.

Rite Aid was a shitty company 20 years ago. Gotta give them credit for consistency.

Just curious, why post a 5-week old article to News?

Did it not meet your standards? Why have you never contributed a single post to News?

I mean, it was posted a bunch of times when the articles first came out, so I'm wondering why you're reposting, 5 weeks later. Seems like a fair question in News

It doesn't meet the community standards, no. The sidebar clearly states it must be within 30 days.

Aren't they going bankrupt anyway?