ThisConnecticutsupermarket is tracking customers with biometric equipment

Jul. 13—"It is one tool that is used in conjunction with traditional store video surveillance to help deter organized retail theft at the store level," said Karen O'Shea, a spokeswoman in ShopRite's corporate office in New Jersey. "And like so many other retailers nationwide that are using video surveillance tools today, many ShopRite stores are beginning to implement biometric technology."

O'Shea said the chain's stores "that have implemented biometric software are using facial recognition, not voice recognition or retinal scanning." O'Shea did not say how many ShopRite stores are using the biometric software.

O'Shea said that ShopRite stores in Connecticut that use the technology want to be in compliance with the Connecticut Data Privacy Act. Biometric identifiers can include facial and voice recognition as well as retina scanning.

"We aren't in a position to comment on this specific sign without further investigation, but generally, the Connecticut Data Privacy Act requires clear, affirmative consent signifying a consumer's freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous agreement for the processing of a consumer's sensitive data," Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said. "This includes biometric data, including retina scans and voiceprints and automatic measurements of a person's facial characteristics. This is a new law that went into effect on July 1."

Reducing shoplifting

A sign in a ShopRite store in Vernon store alerting customers to the monitoring was prominently displayed on exterior entry doors to the supermarket earlier this week. By Wednesday, it was moved to a less prominent location.

The Vernon ShopRite is owned by a Manchester-based limited liability company, Waverly Markets. Rich Cohen, who is the owner and chairman of Waverly Markets, was not available for comment and the store's manager declined answer any question wen contacted by Hearst Connecticut Media.

ShopRite is a retailers' cooperative of supermarkets that has 321 stores in six states, including 28 in Connecticut.

"Stores that implement the technology are also posting signage to make shoppers aware of the use of facial recognition," O'Shea said. "This technology — used thoughtfully and in combination with other measures taken to reduce theft — may help prevent crime in store and keep customers and associates safe."

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Karen Gullo, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said officials in the organization "see retailers and other businesses seeking to profit from using invasive facial recognition technologies to identify and track people without consent."

"This is not okay," Gullo said. "People should be able to walk into a store without having to worry that the owner is capturing their biometric data to figure out who they are, mine data about them, use that data to push ads and sales on them as they shop, and keep that data for future targeted advertising and to sell to other merchants and data brokers. That's why we need strong digital and biometric privacy legislation, like the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, that requires companies to obtain our consent before collection and/or sharing this data."

Wayne Pesce is the president of the Connecticut Food Association, a trade group representing supermarkets in the state. Pesce said he believes that officials at the Vernon ShopRite were making an honest attempt to comply with the new law.

"We're required to have signs and warning all over the place in stores," Pesce said. "There are signs for tobacco, there are signs for other things. We have to post OSHA signs in our back rooms regarding health and safety issues."

Pesce said external and employee theft from grocery stores typically reduces supermarkets' profit margins by as much as 3.5 percent.

Two of ShopRite's rivals in the grocery business, Big Y and Stop & Shop, told Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday that they do not make use of any biometrics equipment in their stores. Officials with Whole Foods, which has 10 stores in Connecticut, were not available for comment.

Retailers typically make use of biometric identifiers for three basic reasons, according to experts: To reduce shoplifting and employee theft, as a way of making payment methods easier and more secure as well as to predict and identify consumer behaviors.

Burt Flickinger, managing director of the New York City-based consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, said collection of biometric identifiers has become more prevalent because of escalating retail thefts as well as well as concerns about the safety of employees and customers.

"Stores are finding that shoplifting is not pervasive across the entire customer base," Flickinger said. "It is being done by more organized groups, professional gangs of thieves that take the merchandise and then resell it."

He said the cost of merchandise theft can increase the prices consumers pay by 1 or 2 percent. Officials with discount retailer Target told financial analysts in a recent conference call with financial analysts they expect merchandise lost to theft to grow from $400 million to an estimated $1 billion by the end of this year, according to Flickinger.

"Everybody is the retail sector is looking into it," he said. "It's how our society has evolved. The retailer started using biometric identifiers because they saw the airlines and the government doing it."

Privacy risk

Kaleigh and Yamiel Zea weren't aware of that their biometric identifiers were being collected when they visited the Vernon ShopRite on Thursday. But the Vernon couple took the news in stride

"A camera is a camera," said Yamiel Zea. "It's no big deal."

Having a grocery store do it doesn't bother me," Kaleigh Zea said.

In recent months, the increased use of biometric identifiers by retailers has led at least two high profile lawsuits on behalf of consumers.

WalMart was the subject of a class action lawsuit alleging the retail giant violated Illinois' Biometric Privacy Act by improperly using "cameras and advanced video surveillance systems." And in March of this year, a Brooklyn man sued Amazon over its alleged violations of a New York City local law regulating the use of biometric scanning devices.

The proposed class-action lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, argues that Amazon has run afoul of a municipal ordinance that took effect in January 2022. The law requires companies post a "clear and conspicuous sign" near store entrances that use such equipment.

Vahid Behzadan, a University of New Haven assistant professor of computer and data science, said technology savvy retailers like Amazon Go make extensive use of biometrics. But Behzadan said without vigilant maintenance of systems that collect biometric identifiers, use of the equipment creates "a privacy and security risk."

"Even if the images in a biometric (collection) system are not stored to a hard drive or don't have any names attached to those images, the information can be used to track individuals, which can lead to the discovery of behavior patterns." he said. "A retail store can become liable if they allow confidential or private information to be leaked to outside parties. If the system a retailer is using is not professionally and frequently maintained, it can become vulnerable."

Ben Blackburn, a Cheshire resident, said "biometrics isn't always the bogeyman we think it is."

"There are biometric solutions that can preempt dangerous events with weapons and hazmat detection," he said.

But another Cheshire consumer, Caitlin Legere, said she would "completely avoid" any retailer that makes use of biometric equipment.

Shawn Gray of Middletown said his feelings about the use of biometric equipment "depend on what that data is being used for, the privacy policy of that company, and other factors."

A shopper at the Southington ShopRite, Melanie Anne, said she saw the sign at that location and "I actually stopped to read it."

"I'm not sure I like it, but due to theft, I kind of understand it," she said.