By Supermarkets to trial age-guessing cameras for alcohol buyers
Major supermarkets in the UK are set to trial a new technology of cameras at self-checkouts for alcohol buyers, to speed up to checkout process.
The technology will allow customers to avoid waiting for staff approval of age as it can estimate the age of the customer.
It is part of a Home Office test of technology to assist the selling of alcohol, with a successful trial opening the door for other uses.
Asda, Co-op and Morrisons are installing the cameras in some of their shops, while Aldi already have a similar system in place in a shop in London.
Customers will have to give their consent for the camera to estimate their age.
The camera will use a algorithms from a database of thousands of anonymous faces to estimate the age of the customer.
If the system does not pass the customer as over the age of 25, they will have to show ID to a staff, as is the current norm.
Robin Tombs, chief executive of Yoti, the company providing the technology, said: “Waiting for age approval at the self-checkout is sometimes frustrating for shoppers.
“Our age-verification solutions are helping retailers like Asda meet the requirements of regulators worldwide and keep pace with consumer demands for fast and convenient services, while preserving people’s privacy.”
Yoti is keen to emphasise to people that this technology is not a facial recognition software, it compares the image to the database it has to determine an age.
It has also said that the cameras will not retain the images it takes.
Privacy concerns of a similar nature were raised in 2020, when Co-op trialled a system that flagged up customers with a record of theft or anti-social behaviour.
