STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York City Wegmans locations are now collecting your biometric data as you shop.
In a new phase of a 2024 pilot program, shoppers who frequent the Manhattan and Brooklyn storefronts — and any other passersby who happen to stop in — could have their likeness (features like face and eyes) and voice collected by the grocery store chain.
According to the Gothamist, this biometric data “is used to ‘protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees,’ according to signage.”
“Wegmans representatives did not reply to questions about how the data would be stored, why it changed its policy or if it would share the data with law enforcement,” the Gothamist wrote.
During the pilot program, the data collected was specifically of employees; had customer’s data been collected, it would have been deleted.
Such a policy has not been announced for the New York City locations so far.
The use of facial recognition in New York City businesses is a hotly debated topic, with the City Council even drafting legislation to prohibit such practices from being implemented.
That legislation, introduced in 2023, has yet to pass.
In 2024, the sponsor of the bill, Councilmember Shahana Hanif, made this comment: “Since this bill was heard last session, there have been countless developments that have made this the passage of this bill more urgent than ever, including wrongful arrests and data leaks — but the event that stands out the most to me is the Federal Trade Commission’s finding in December that the pharmacy chain RiteAid used facial recognition technology to falsely and disproportionately identify thousands of people of color and women as likely shoplifters, including those right here in New York City,”