For Immediate Release
S.T.O.P. Condemns Macy’s For Facial Recognition False Arrest, Jail Assault
(New York, NY 1/23/2024) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a privacy and civil rights group, condemns Macy’s for using facial recognition that misidentified Harvey Murphy Jr., an innocent 61-year-old man, who was falsely arrested and allegedly assaulted in jail. Murphy claims in a lawsuit filed last week that after he was falsely accused of armed robbery at a Houston Sunglass Hut, a retail partner of Macy’s, he was arrested, beaten, and raped by three men while in jail. At the time of the robbery, Murphy was in Sacramento, CA. Murphy is white but joins six Black individuals who reported false arrest due to facial recognition in recent years. The civil rights group strongly condemned the false arrest and its facilitation of horrific violence, and renewed its call on the New York City Council to ban facial recognition in stores, including Macy’s Manhattan flagship store, which uses facial recognition.
SEE: Washington Post - Man sues Macy’s, saying false facial recognition match led to jail assault
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/22/facial-recognition-wrongful-identification-assault/
“Our civil rights are too valuable to ever be put on sale,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “For years, Macy’s has led the national movement to spread facial recognition in stores. But this sort of injustice and violence is the inevitable result. No one should have to fear being arrested and brutalized because an algorithm gets it wrong. With every shopper being scanned every day, errors aren’t a fluke, they’re inevitable. These sorts of wrongful allegations will only continue to grow unless cities, states, and Congress take steps to outlaw this technology.”
In August, S.T.O.P. condemned the false arrest of Porcha Woodruff, an innocent Black woman who was then eight-months pregnant, by the Detroit Police Department after a wrongful automated facial recognition match. Falsely accused of robbery and carjacking, Woodruff was held in jail for 11 hours as she was having contractions and sharp pain before she was released on a $100,000 personal bond and then immediately hospitalized for dehydration.
SEE: Press Release - S.T.O.P. Condemns Facial Recognition Arrest Of Innocent Black Pregnant Woman
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/8/7/stop-condemns-facial-recognition-arrest-of-innocent-black-pregnant-woman
In recent years, retailers had cited growing shoplifting as a justification for installing the invasive and error-prone technology. However, last month, the National Retail Federation retracted alarming reports about organized retail theft, conceding that shoplifting had largely been unchanged in recent years.
SEE: Fortune - Retail group forced to correct ‘inaccurate’ report claiming organized retail crime accounts for nearly half of inventory loss
https://fortune.com/2023/12/08/national-retail-federation-report-inaccurate/
Cahn continued, “It’s long past time for retailers to admit their mistake. They lied when they said shoplifting surged, they lied when they said facial recognition would keep us safe, and the truth is that this technology is a true threat. It’s long past time to protect customers and ban facial recognition. Stores should be scanning price tags, not our faces.”
Last month, S.T.O.P. welcomed a landmark Federal Trade Commission settlement with Rite Aid, barring the national pharmacy chain from deploying facial recognition for five years. The FTC found Rite Aid’s facial recognition systematically misidentified customers as shoplifters, including an 11-year-old girl. In October, S.T.O.P. joined a coalition of civil rights groups in launching a public advocacy campaign to “ban the scan” in New York City, specifically demanding the New York City Council pass two pending bills banning facial recognition and other biometric technologies in residential buildings and public accommodations, such as stores and arenas.
SEE: Press Release - S.T.O.P. Welcomes Rite Aid, FTC Settlement, Renews Call For Facial Recognition Ban
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/12/20/stop-welcomes-rite-aid-ftc-settlement-renews-call-for-facial-recognition-ban
Press Release - 17 Civil Rights Groups Launch NYC Campaign To Ban Facial Recognition
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/10/18/17-civil-rights-groups-launch-nyc-campaign-to-ban-facial-recognition
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn.
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