Shopper Privacy Back Yet Again In News, But This Time There Really Is A Privacy Issue

January 5, 2026 by Dave Haynes

Computer vision technology in retail and public spaces has for years been freaking out a subset of consumers for no real reason, but now a popular U.S. grocer has been called out for using that kind of technology in a way that really does raise legitimate privacy issues.

While the vast majority of uses for camera-based video analytics in large stores and shopping malls employ anonymous techniques, New York state-based grocer Wegmans is being red-flagged by privacy advocates for collecting and storing biometric data, including records on faces, eyes and even voice prints.

The chain has said the effort is all about protecting the safety of shoppers and store staff.

Readers who have been around the digital signage and DOOH sectors for a few years will know there have been sporadic flare-ups of fusses in the press when a mall operator or media company has been discovered using video analytics to measure and characterize the “audiences” that pass through an environment and by screens.

Privacy issues have been raised, even though the operators have consistently said the technology just captures and then discards faces in video streams, with the code looking at the geometry of peoples’ mugs to estimate attributes like age, gender and even emotion. These systems don’t do facial recognition and don’t match captured faces against any database.

But in the case of Wegmans, as well as another grocer Fairway Market (and probably many more), there is a database and they capturing and collecting faces.

Photo: ABC7 NY

The city of New York has a by-law that requires users to declare the technology is in place by placing a sign at the entry, reading “Biometric identifier information collected at this location.”

Wegmans’ privacy page includes this: Some of our stores (including in exterior areas) utilize video surveillance and other monitoring tools (collectively, “Security Equipment”), which may capture license plate information and biometrics, such as facial recognition information, to create a safer environment for our staff and customers, and to deter, prevent, investigate, and/or prosecute any illegal activity that may occur on our premises. Our Security Equipment records digital images but does not record audio information (collectively, “Security Information”). Security Information is only accessible to a limited number of Wegmans employees, third-party service providers, and/or law enforcement, all of whom may be engaged to assist with security-related tasks when they arise. The third-party service providers may have access to Security Information only where strictly required to perform their job, and are not allowed to use the Security Information for other purposes; and we may provide Security Information to law enforcement for investigations, to prevent fraud, or for safety and security purposes. Wegmans Security Information is not shared, leased, or exchanged with third parties for anything of monetary value or any other form of profit.

Shoplifting has developed into a huge problem in the U.S., with even seemingly mundane goods like razors now under lock and key in aisles. Major retailers reported that “shrink” reached record highs in 2023 and 2024, costing the U.S. retail industry more than $120 billion annually. So technology-driven efforts to get on top of it by tracking and identifying serial thieves makes sense.

The problem is going to be worries about that data being used for other purposes.

There are suggestions such a database, if somehow accessed by the increasingly aggressive US immigration control people, would provide a useful tool for helping to round up undocumented migrants.

Then there are the more familiar, to our industry, concerns that actual facial recognition operating in a store could lead to targeted in-store advertising and things like dynamic pricing that gets based on individual shopper attributes.

Walmart previously ran a facial recognition pilot to identify suspected shoplifters, and critics of the effort speculated that its rollout of electron shelf labels would tie in nicely with shopper IDs to drive dynamic pricing. Walmart has, however, said it is not using facial recognition to influence pricing.

So … the anonymous video analytics tech that has long been familiar in this sector remains distinct from facial recognition. But it is VERY likely the unwarranted fuss over anonymous computer vision uses in retail and DOOH is going to increase as that mundane stuff gets mentioned in the same breath as what Wegmans and others are up to.