UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Fairway recently posted a sign outside of its Upper West Side store that states the business is using facial and voice recognition technology.
“This Business collects, retains, converts, stores, or shares customers’ biometric identifier information, which is information that can be used to identify or help identify you,” the sign posted to the front door at Broadway and West 74th Street reads. “Examples of biometric identifier information are eye scans and voiceprints.”
Wakefern Food Corporation, the parent company of Fairway, did not respond to a call from Patch, but it sent a statement about the technology to ILoveTheUpperWestSide, which was the first publication to report on the technology within the incredibly popular UWS store.
“This technology is helping our stores reduce retail crime, an industry-wide challenge that has increased dramatically over the last few years,” Karen O’Shea, a spokeswoman for Wakefern, told ILoveTheUpperWestSide. “Only trained asset protection associates use the system, which helps us focus attention on repeat shoplifters.”
Businesses that use facial recognition technology are legally required to post signage to inform patrons.
Wakefern told ILoveTheUpperWestSide that signage was posted, but when it visited the grocer on Sunday and Monday it did not find any signs mentioning the technology. On Tuesday morning, though, the signage was now posted to the front door.
Patch could not confirm if the sign was posted somewhere else in the store previously.
A spokesperson from Wakefern had previously confirmed to the New York Times on Friday that the location in Chelsea at 766 Sixth Ave. also used the facial recognition technology.
A person walking out of the Upper West Side Fairway on Tuesday morning told Patch that the news of the technology at the business was “worrying to learn about.”
