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

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.

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.