Rite Aid's Facial Recognition Ban: FTC Cracks Down on Reckless AI Use

Rite Aid has agreed to a five-year ban on using facial recognition technology after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that the company falsely accused customers of crimes and unfairly targeted people of color. The FTC accused Rite Aid of using imperfect technology that led to false-positive alerts, resulting in wrongful accusations, detentions, and searches. Rite Aid disagreed with the allegations but reached a settlement with the FTC. The company will have to implement safeguards and delete customer pictures from its database. The ban will go into effect after court approval.