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From Tuesday, 2 September 2025, Sainsbury’s has begun an eight-week trial of facial recognition technology in two of its UK stores. The company says that the move is in response to rising retail crime, including theft, violence and abuse against staff.
The technology, provided by Facewatch, is designed to identify people who have previously engaged in violent, aggressive or criminal behaviour in stores by scanning faces via CCTV and comparing them against a watchlist compiled by Facewatch.
The trial has been met with significant criticism from privacy groups, with Big Brother Watch describing the move as “Orwellian” and “deeply disproportionate,” citing risks of false accusations and the creation of secret watchlists without due process.
Related:
- Sainsbury’s rolls out facial recognition tech to curb in-store theft, Retail Gazette, 2 September 2025
- Big Brother Watch responds to Sainsbury’s trial of live facial recognition in stores, Big Brother Watch, 2 September 2025
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The following is a slightly edited version of a Twitter thread posted by Big Brother Watch on 2 September 2025.
Sainsbury’s has just announced that it will be trialling Orwellian live facial recognition in select UK shops:
- Sydenham, SE London
- Oldfield Park, Bath
With plans for nationwide rollout.
For one of the UK’s largest supermarkets to trial this intrusive tech is deeply disproportionate and chilling.
“Facial recognition surveillance turns shoppers into suspects, with devastating consequences for people’s lives when it inevitably makes mistakes. Sainsburys Facewatch are adding customers to secret watchlists with no due process, meaning people are being falsely accused, grossly mistreated and blacklisted from shops, despite being entirely innocent.
“Sainsbury’s should abandon this trial and the government must urgently step in to prevent the unchecked spread of this invasive technology,” Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at the privacy group Big Brother Watch, said.
Read more: Sainsbury’s tests facial recognition technology in effort to tackle shoplifting, The Guardian, 2 September 2025
Innocent people are being blacklisted by shops using this technology including:
- A teenager in Manchester who was misidentified and told she was banned from shops using this tech nationwide
- A woman in Greater Manchester who was falsely accused of stealing toilet roll
- A Sports Direct shopper in Rotherham who was falsely accused of being a fraudster
We are regularly hearing from and supporting distressed people who have been caught up in a confusing net of privatised surveillance, despite being entirely innocent.
Facial recognition reverses the presumption of innocence – the foundation of our democracy and freedom.
We’re backing a legal challenge to #StopFacialRecognition in the UK. If you would like to support the legal challenge, you can donate HERE.
[Note from The Exposé: We suggest that people avoid using shops that use facial recognition. Not least of all because your money is funding it. There is no sane reason to buy goods from shops that will use the profits they make from you to implement these Orwellian schemes.]
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Categories: Breaking News, UK News
So has Waitrose Winchester. I happened to look up on way out and saw it. Nobody asked us and I didn’t see any notice (although I didn’t look for one).
Is it true that we can demand a copy of our visit and they cannot refuse?
It has been in some Asda supermarkets for about 5 yrs now, they even have a large screen showing every person that walks toward it and a frame homing in on every face, like China.
No surprise to see sainsburys doing this, they have them on every self checkout and are trying to do away with human checkouts (they have in some)but in many places people are still demanding person checkouts, and they have to open them.
I used to just put a sticker over the camera lens , on occasion I was told I could
nt do that so I replied I have not given permission to be filmed but now I demand a proper checkout be opened and they have to do it.The sheeple just dont and won
t understand what nightmare they are forming for theyre children and grandchildren.Are you sure that’s the same thing? I mean, I also seen a tv screen in my country in some grocery stores, showing those who enter the store, but never imagined that it’s for the purposes it says in the article. Are those camera/s so good, that they capture a biometric photo of each individual that enters the store? Have they asked there, for ID/passport verification? Is there a photo of those systems so we know from before? how do their cameras looklike?
The screen in the UK Asda store (its a big Asda) has a screen that you have to pass after leaving the checkouts ( there
s not one as you enter the store) you look up and see your face in a frame just like your camera phone when focusing (is it focusing)? Its an eerie feeling when you see around 10 people including children with their faces framed.Sorry you asked what the cameras look like, I did
nt see where the camera was, it could be at the side or below the TV screen like at the the express checkouts.I dont go there anymore.
If the screen at your store does not frame your face then maybe there is just a security guard watching.
But probably not in this day and age.
How does it look like?can we report to commisioner for personal data protection?
The ‘Mark of the Beast’ has almost arrived.
I saw shop-lifting incident 25 years ago; none since though I now spend more time in shops. I believe my eyes, not Press story pushing digital ID.
I’m frequently on receiving end of abuse from retail staff, Sainsbury’s are worst. Last week cashier stole £10 note from me that was all I had for 7 days’ food.
Retailers’ first assumption guilty smashes to smithereens foundation stone of whole of English Law, not just one Law, all of them.
Distribution-centre staff steal from warehouses and HGV drivers delivering to shops steal from HGVs for black-market; vast quantities stolen before it gets to shop-floor where customers can access it.
Big Brother Watch website names some retailers etc using facial recognition. It’s not just privacy theft, it’s ID theft and steals freedom by pushing shoppers out of shops to on-line controllers. Boycotts needed on-line as well as in shops.
Is there some office of commissioner for personal data protection to report this in the UK?
In theory ‘yes’ but in practice they fob you off
that’s horrible. is that ico org uk?
What we should do for digital banks and verification?
Has anyone tried to verify on digital banks with a cap and mask on their face?
if they can tell us if it worked
Also, is it safer and better to pay with bitcoin anywhere it is accepted? because it’s anonymous. I found some articles here saying it’s made by transhumans. I personally don’t use it but if that digital euro, is being forced, i might reconsider as bitcoin is anonymous. At least this is the idea i get
A simple customer response should do the trick. Stop shopping at Sainsbury?
GCHQ will, no doubt, have a feed into the information provided by this proposed system. More intrusion into peoples private lifes, however did they manage before? the employment of security personel but of course that costs money and they only want it from you. Not exactly a two way street anymore. The try their hardest to alienate the very people that make then billions!!
A simple customer response should do the trick. Stop shopping at Sainsbury? GCHQ will, no doubt, have a feed into the information provided by this proposed system. More intrusion into peoples private lifes, however did they manage before? the employment of security personel but of course that costs money and they only want it from you. Not exactly a two way street anymore. The try their hardest to alienate the very people that make then billions!!
this has nothing to do with theft or abuse etc. it’a all about surveillance and control – give it the finger every time you see one
a lot of spy phones these days also have the facial recognition functionality..stalin mao et el would have been creaming their pants if they had this technology in their days