Sainsbury’s Resumes Facial Recognition Alerts After Pause

Sainsbury’s has resumed live facial recognition alerts at its East Dulwich store after pausing the system following a mistaken identification, TechRadar reports. Facewatch, which supplies the technology, confirmed to TechRadar that the pause had ended. Sainsbury’s declined to comment on the record.

The system scans customers entering the store and checks biometric measurements of their faces against a watchlist. Facewatch says it deletes the measurements within milliseconds when there is no match, while photographic crops of detected faces may be held for up to seven days for incident review.

Matt Arnold was wrongly accused of shoplifting and escorted from the store this summer. He told the BBC that the incident made him worry people might follow a machine’s instructions without considering the consequences. The system was paused after the incident.

Big Brother Watch says it helps people who were wrongly flagged seek removal of their details from Facewatch’s database. Open Rights Group’s Sarah Lasoye called the system a “dangerous infringement” on data, privacy and human rights. Big Brother Watch’s Jasleen Chaggar questioned whether shoppers should face airport-style screening to buy groceries.

Facewatch defended the system as a way to help protect shop workers. It said advance alerts can give staff time to consider a response or seek support. The company also said store notices provide a phone number and postal address for people unable to scan a QR code.

Sainsbury’s began testing the technology in September 2025 at two stores. TechRadar reports that the initial trial was associated with an almost 50% drop in theft, verbal abuse and antisocial behavior. The company is expanding the system to 200 stores in 2026. Facewatch estimates annual shoplifting losses at £2.2 billion, according to industry indicators it cited.