Infringe on personal privacy? Facial recognition tracks customer shopping behavior

According to foreign media reports, IT companies that research face recognition technology say retailers have begun to use facial recognition technology to collect data when customers shop at stores.

Mark Lent, Managing Director of Jardine Matheson, said: “Understanding customer needs is one of the most important concerns for brick-and-mortar retailers. Entity retailers are tracking the identity of customers entering the mall and the behavior of customers. Jardine Group and Physical retailers collaborate to collect customer information and track customer shopping behavior through facial recognition technology.

According to Lent, the data collected includes “number of customers, age, race, gender. Face recognition is to better understand the traffic and provide a more appropriate offer for these customers.” Customer information is confidential, in the long run. It may even be beneficial to optimize the customer's shopping experience. The Jardine Group's project also includes plans to adjust the in-store music based on the customer's mood.

However, there are many limitations in the use and protection of customer data collected by retailers. Lent said: "Technology is not an obstacle to the implementation of facial recognition systems, privacy and culture." He said that the idea of ​​using sensors and cameras to collect shopper data is a typical privacy issue of this era. He explained that retailers have invested a lot of money to protect customer data and prevent leaks. When talking about Uber's recent data breach scandal, Lent said that companies must be extremely sensitive to this. At the same time, customers should pay special attention when submitting personal data.