Sainsbury's ejects man misidentified as offender

"We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store. This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store."

"Facewatch later told Rajah there were "no incidents or alerts associated with [him]" on its database"

"Am I supposed to walk around fearful that I might be misidentified as a criminal?"

"Imagine how mentally debilitating this could be to someone vulnerable, after that kind of public humiliation,"

Warren Rajah was approached in Sainsbury's Elephant and Castle store and told to leave after staff incorrectly identified him as an offender flagged by Facewatch facial recognition. The store is one of six in London using Facewatch to combat theft and violence against staff. Facewatch later informed Rajah there were "no incidents or alerts associated with [him]" on its database, and Sainsbury's apologised, calling the incident human error. Rajah said the system still relies on human interpretation of alerts and expressed particular concern for vulnerable customers who could suffer severe humiliation and mental harm. A similar misidentification occurred previously at another retailer.

Read at www.bbc.com