Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what safeguards are in place to ensure that facial recognition technology used in supermarkets does not contribute to discriminatory outcomes based on race, gender, age, or disability.

FRT systems should not undermine people’s rights or discriminate unfairly. Under data protection law, organisations need to evaluate the risks to people and their rights deriving from the specific contexts. Supermarkets should be able to demonstrate that they have a lawful basis for the processing of personal data, and that its collection is limited to what is necessary. They must carry out Data Protection Impact Assessments, where there is a high risk to individuals’ rights and freedoms, including risks of bias or discrimination. Supermarkets must comply with the data protection principles of fairness, transparency and accountability when deploying FRT. The Information Commissioner’s Office has clarified that FRT involves the processing of biometric data which is likely to constitute special category data. The processing of such data is subject to additional safeguards under the law. If any significant decision has been made about an individual based solely on automated processing, they have a right to challenge such decision, obtain human intervention and make representations to the controller about them.