Bankrupt US pharmacy chain Rite Aid banned from using AI facial recognition

Bankrupt US pharmacy chain Rite Aid will be prohibited from using facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes for five years to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges it harmed consumers, the FTC said on Tuesday.

Rite Aid deployed artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology from 2012 to 2020 to identify shoplifters but the company falsely flagged some consumers as matching someone who had previously been identified as a shoplifter, the FTC said.