Pharmaceutical company fined for 'facial recognition system'!

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has banned US pharmaceutical company Rite Aid from using facial recognition technology for five years after the company abused it in a way that led store employees to "falsely" accuse customers of theft.

The FTC made a statement regarding Rite Aid's use of artificial intelligence facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores between 2012 and 2020 to prevent theft.

The statement said the company misused facial recognition technology in a way that caused store employees to "unfairly" accuse customers of theft.

Noting that the company did not take the necessary security measures when using the technology in question, the statement said that Rite Aid was banned from using this technology for 5 years on the grounds that it "did not follow reasonable procedures and prevent harm to consumers" when using facial recognition technology in its stores. On the other hand, in a statement on its website, Rite Aid reported that it used facial recognition technology in a "limited number of stores" and stopped using it about 3 years ago.