{"id":489688,"date":"2026-01-03T15:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T15:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:19:17","slug":"nyc-wegmans-is-storing-biometric-data-on-shoppers-eyes-voices-and-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489688\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers’ eyes, voices and faces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wegman\u2019s in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain’s Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored by the Rochester-headquartered supermarket chain. The information is used to “protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees,” according to the signage. The new scanning policy is an expansion of a 2024 pilot.<\/p>\n

The chain had initially said that the scanning system was only for a small group of employees and promised<\/a> to delete any biometric data it collected from shoppers during the pilot rollout. The new notice makes no such assurances.<\/p>\n

Wegman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Shopper Johnny Jerido, 59, said he would shop elsewhere after learning about the biometric collection system.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI really don’t like it,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t want no one to think I’m stealing anything or doing anything illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legislation<\/a> aiming to block businesses from using such systems was introduced in the City Council in 2023 after Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan used it to identify and boot two attorneys who worked for law firms with active litigation against his company. But the bill has languished, and other supermarket chains like Fairway already use biometric collection systems.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Shahana Hanif is the bill<\/a>‘s primary sponsor. She did not reply to a request for comment on Wegman\u2019s expanded collection program.<\/p>\n

Wegmans and other businesses that collect biometric data are required to post signs announcing the practice because of a 2021 city law, but it\u2019s unclear how many other companies may be using similar practices.<\/p>\n

The agency in charge of implementing the law has no enforcement mechanism for businesses that don\u2019t comply, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, who said that customers are free to pursue their own legal action.<\/p>\n

Will Owen, a privacy advocate with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said that storing customer\u2019s biometric data can open them up to risks from hackers or immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really chilling that immigrant New Yorkers going into Wegmans and other grocery stores have to worry about their highly sensitive biometric data potentially getting into the hands of ICE,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Blaze Herbas, 29, said she shopped at the store but would avoid it in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to shop freely without data being saved on us. That’s obvious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wegman\u2019s in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":489689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-489688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115831843343134850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}