John,
Good news: 18 major US retailers, including CVS, Starbucks, Home Depot, Chipotle, and Target, have let us know they do not use facial recognition and do not have plans to use it in their stores.1 These companies have made these statements thanks to the thousands of emails and tweets people like you sent to retailers, and the dozens of media hits the campaign has received. Companies are feeling the heat, and facial recognition is becoming a politically toxic issue they want to stay far away from.
Now we’ve added more of the largest stores in the United States to the scorecard and it’s time to pressure the companies that are or might be using facial recognition to ban this technology once and for all.
The responses we’ve received from stores over the last couple of weeks demonstrate the power of your outreach. The more these stores hear from us, the more likely they are to take a position against facial recognition.
Long term, our best chance for keeping people safe from facial recognition is to pass legislative bans on its use across the board—from private companies to government agencies. But applying direct pressure on stores to reject facial recognition outright is a powerful stepping stone towards that bigger goal.
That’s why we need to keep delivering the message to these retailers. Use our scorecard to reach out to the companies labeled “Might Use” and tell them to ban facial recognition in their stores right now. Every tweet and email you send gets us one step closer to putting an end to the spread of this awful tech. Let’s keep fighting.
Onward,
Leila at ❤️Fight For the Future
Footnotes:
1. Ban Facial Recognition in Stores: https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/#scorecard
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
