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Coles has been forced to deny claims it places an ‘electronic signature’ on every customer as they enter the store.
A customer said he will never shop at the supermarket again after he claimed staff told him cameras follow customers around the store and place a red dot on their head, which turns green after they pay, for to curb theft.
However, Coles has strongly refuted the claims that the shopper’s narrative is false and that there is no facial recognition technology used in stores.
‘While I’m shopping, my partner suddenly needs to go to the toilet. But the gates wouldn’t let her out of the store, so in a panic she ran around until she found an employee who unlocked the gate for her, the Gold Coast man said in a Facebook post.
‘When we subsequently spoke to three different employees about it, we were told that every time we enter the store, an electronic ‘signature’ is imprinted in our heads as a red dot that is recognized on their computer screens.’
Coles has refuted claims from a customer who said he was told by staff that the store uses facial recognition technology to place an “electronic signature” on each shopper
He said he was told the red dot turns green after customers pay and opens the security gates for them to leave.
‘Three questions about this: Why aren’t we told about this when we go in? No signs at all. What effect does the electronic fingerprint have on my body? What are the health consequences? Does it give cancer or some other disease,’ he complained.
‘Is this a precursor to the digital currency where we will be banned from shops if our social credit score is not up to what the current standard is?’
The disgruntled shopper’s post was shared 1,600 times across Facebook and commenters were divided, with many expressing their scepticism.
‘That’s not true at all!’ said one user and another replied: ‘Sounds very sci-fi and unreal. What a strange experience’.
Coles has strongly denied claims that the shopper’s story is false and that there is no facial recognition technology used in stores
“If you go in again, just remember your tinfoil hat!” joked a third.
‘It’s news to me. I’ve never ever had that problem when I shopped at Coles,” added one.
A spokesperson for Coles told FEMAIL that there is definitely no “signature fingerprint” technology being used as the man claimed.
‘We do not use facial recognition technology in our stores. The claims in this social post are not true,’ they said.
‘The safety of our team members and customers is our top priority and we have a number of security measures in place to reduce theft from our stores, including new smart gate technology.
‘This technology uses overhead sensors in the checkout to detect movement from the point of sale to the exit – automatically opening the gates when customers have completed payment for their items.’