Stories

Mon, 17 Aug 2026

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 Sainsbury's branch halts AI use as shopper ejected

Matt Arnold says he was asked to leave the store after being wrongly flagged as a shoplifter.

* Sainsbury's has suspended its use of live facial recognition technology at one of its London branches after a customer was wrongly challenged as a shoplifter.
* Matt Arnold, 46, was buying items at the East Dulwich store when he was stopped by management and asked to leave due to an incident that "earlier in the week".
* The supermarket claimed the mistake was caused by human error, but critics have called for the technology to be scrapped.
* Facewatch, the company supplying the facial recognition software, said it is not at fault and that the incident was a result of human error in handling alerts.
* Arnold's experience has raised concerns about the accuracy and implications of the technology, with some arguing that even a 0.2% error rate could affect many customers.
* Sainsbury's claims to have paused the technology at the Dulwich store for an investigation while defending its wider rollout, citing escalating violence against retail workers as a reason.