Your Face Is Being Scanned at the Grocery Store: and Washington Doesn't Make Them Tell You

Full Episode Transcript

The next time you walk into a grocery store, a camera might turn your face into a string of code before you reach the produce aisle. In downtown Spokane, one discount grocery is already doing exactly that, measuring the distance between your eyes, the shape of your face, the width of your mouth. And under Washington state law, they barely have to tell you it's happening.

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If you've ever bought milk, you're in this story

If you've ever bought milk, you're in this story. Not the version where police scan a suspect. The version where a store scans everyone. Here's what makes it strange. Washington passed a law that put strict rules on police using facial recognition. But lawmakers left a hole big enough to drive a shopping cart through, private security got carved out. So a detective faces accountability. A grocery store faces almost none. How did the people meant to protect your privacy end up regulating the badge and ignoring the checkout lane?

Let's start with that Spokane store. It's a Grocery Outlet, and it's scanning customers right now. The system converts your face into a unique code, eye spacing, brow position, jaw shape. The company says it's tested accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, that's the federal lab, N.I.S.T., that measures how well these systems actually work. And the disclosure? A small sticker by the front door. According to the reporting, that sticker is already more than state law requires. Let that sit for a second. The bare minimum was still going above and beyond.

Why the gap? A tech activist who pushed for that 1/1/2020 law said the lobbying against covering private companies got so intense, they dropped it early. The rules for stores didn't fail. They were never really tried. For you, that means the code made from your face isn't governed the way you'd assume.

Now, the stores aren't inventing a threat. Retail workers say the danger is real. In a 1/1/2024 survey, nearly three quarters of retailers said shoplifters were getting more violent. The next year, most said it was just as bad or worse. That's the pressure driving all these cameras. But pressure doesn't guarantee accuracy. In 1/1/2023, the Federal Trade Commission, the F.T.C., ordered Rite Aid to stop using facial recognition in secret. Investigators found false matches that hit people of color hardest. Innocent shoppers, flagged by a machine. The vendor said it worked. The real world said otherwise.

The Bottom Line

And this isn't only a Washington problem. In 1/1/2026, Connecticut introduced a bill to ban retail face scanning, right after the grocery chain Wegmans admitted using it in some stores. One announcement, and lawmakers scrambled. Most states have no law aimed at this at all.

Here's the part that flips the whole thing. We spent years worrying about the government watching us. But the least regulated camera pointed at your face today isn't the government's. It's the one selling you groceries.

So, a Spokane store is turning shoppers' faces into code. Washington's law reins in the police but gives stores a pass. And the only warning is a sticker most people walk right past. The technology can be wrong, and when it's wrong, it tends to be wrong about the same people. Whether you carry a badge or just carry a grocery list, the rules about your own face are being written without you in the room. The full story's in the description if you want the deep dive.

Your Face Is Being Scanned at the Grocery Store: and Washington Doesn't Make Them Tell You