The AEPD opens an investigation into Mercadona for using facial recognition technology to detect possible individuals with restraining orders on the premises or workers.
The Spanish Data Protection Agency has initiated proceedings to carry out an investigation into Mercadona for the implementation of surveillance cameras that detect facial recognition of customers. This has occurred in more than 40 supermarkets that the company has in cities such as Zaragoza, Mallorca and Valencia. This investigation has been initiated as a result of different information published in the media in our country in which the special protection that exists for biometric data was mentioned. This procedure is still at an early stage, so many details of the case are not yet known.
Mercadona faces a rather high financial penalty in case the AEPD finally decides that an infringement has been committed. These data, being biometric, cannot be processed in the normal way, so article 83.5 of the General Data Protection Regulation would apply and lead to fines of up to 20 million euros.
Mercadona reports that it has complied with all the requirements previously specified by the AEPD and that it has acted with total transparency. This recently implemented system makes it possible to detect individuals who have been ordered to stay away from Mercadona or any of its employees. The aim is to prevent access to its supermarkets to anyone in this situation. Other large companies such as IBM or Amazon have already used this access control system but without success, as it was recently withdrawn by both companies due to the dubious ethics of its use.
The Valencian company insists that the system used is totally legal and that it does not store images for later use. They further reiterate that the customer at the entrance of the supermarket is informed with a sign containing the following message:
"We inform ou that Mercadona S.A., in order to improve your security, has implemented a facial recognition system to detect only those people with a restraining order or analogous judicial measure in force that may pose a risk to your safety".