Rite Aid Corporation
Rite Aid deployed facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores that falsely identified consumers, disproportionately people of color and women, as shoplifters.
Case identifiers
- Respondent
- Rite Aid Corporation
- Agency
- Federal Trade Commission
- Announced
- 2023-12-19
- Monetary relief
- Injunctive only
- Case number
- FTC File No. 202-3129
- Statutes cited
- FTC Act § 5 (unfair practices)
Key facts
- 1
Rite Aid used facial recognition in roughly 200 stores from 2012 through 2020 to identify alleged shoplifters.
- 2
FTC alleged the technology produced false-positive matches that led to wrongful accusations, body searches, and ejections.
- 3
False matches disproportionately affected people of color and women.
- 4
Five-year ban on use of facial recognition, first such FTC order against a major retailer.
What the order requires
Injunctive terms imposed by the Federal Trade Commission. These bind Rite Aid Corporation's data practices going forward.
- Five-year ban on using facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes.
- Required deletion of existing biometric data and derived machine-learning models.
- Implementation of a comprehensive information security program.
- Obligation to notify consumers when biometric information is collected.
Primary sources
Read the original government documents. These are the authoritative records, everything on this page is derived from them.
Generate requests in under 60 seconds
Generate a deletion request for $9
Where this action sits in the tracker
- It is one of 19 FTC actions among the 26 cases in this tracker.
- It is an injunctive-only order with no monetary relief; 7 of the 26 tracked actions are structured this way.
- 6 tracked actions were announced in 2023.
- It is one of 1 tracked biometric action.
- It is one of 7 tracked deceptive-advertising actions.
FAQ
What did the FTC charge Rite Aid Corporation with?+
Rite Aid deployed facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores that falsely identified consumers, disproportionately people of color and women, as shoplifters. The Federal Trade Commission cited FTC Act § 5 (unfair practices).
How much did Rite Aid Corporation pay?+
The 2023-12-19 order did not include monetary penalties against Rite Aid Corporation; the agency focused on injunctive relief (prohibiting certain practices going forward).
Does the Rite Aid Corporation settlement mean my data has been deleted?+
The order requires Rite Aid Corporation to delete certain categories of consumer data (see injunctive terms). Individual consumers should still exercise state-law deletion rights (CCPA, CPA, TDPSA) to confirm deletion from any remaining successor databases.
How can I read the original FTC order?+
The Federal Trade Commission press release is available at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/rite-aid-banned-using-ai-facial-recognition-after-ftc-says-retailer-deployed-technology-without. The case / matter number is FTC File No. 202-3129.