READ THE STATEMENT
Sainsbury’s Says Its Facial Recognition Isn’t the Problem. Two Shoppers Were Told to Leave.
(Both times, Sainsbury’s blamed its staff. Facewatch, which runs the system, blamed the store.)
By Ethan Ward · Oct. 18, 2026
Sainsbury’s uses Facewatch, a facial recognition system, in more than 55 of its UK stores, with 150 more planned. In January, a manager at its Elephant and Castle store in London told a shopper, Warren Rajah, to leave and took his shopping. The alert was for another man in the store. Sainsbury’s gave this statement to PA Media on Feb. 5.
THE STATEMENT · SAINSBURY’S · FEB. 5, 2026 · TO PA MEDIA
We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store. (1. Sainsbury’s offered him a £75 voucher. To clear his name, he sent Facewatch a copy of his passport and a photo of himself.)
This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store. (2. In August, Sainsbury’s said nearly the same thing about a shopper at its East Dulwich store, and switched the system off there that month.)
Sainsbury’s statement, as reported by The Register. Ads are cut from the screenshot.
SCREENSHOT: THE REGISTER, FEB. 6, 2026
Our notes
Sainsbury’s says “every match is reviewed by a trained manager,” it told LBC in August. By its own account, both mistakes happened at that step, when staff acted on an alert.
On Aug. 6, two managers at the East Dulwich store told Matt Arnold to leave while he waited at a self-checkout. From outside, he saw a screen in the store showing an alert with a red circle around his face, Computing reported. Sainsbury’s told LBC it was “human error, not the facial recognition technology.” Facewatch told LBC that “a correct alert was sent to the retailer, but was subsequently subject to human error in the way it was handled.”
Facewatch’s privacy notice says faces that don’t match are “instantly deleted.” The same notice says it keeps “detected faces from the camera feed and alerts for 7 days.” People on its watchlist are kept for up to 12 months from their last recorded incident.
In 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office decided no further action against Facewatch was needed, adding that the decision did not “give a green light to the blanket use of this technology,” Big Brother Watch reported.
What you can do
Ask what they hold on you. Send a subject access request to Sainsbury’s at [email protected] and to Facewatch at [email protected]. They usually have one month to answer. Big Brother Watch has templates for the shop and for Facewatch.
If they don’t answer, or you think they got it wrong, complain to the ICO.
Big Brother Watch helps people flagged by store facial recognition and collects cases at [email protected].
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How we reported this
Sainsbury’s statement was given to PA Media and published Feb. 5, 2026. We read reporting by PA, The Register, LBC, Computing, and Retail Systems, along with Facewatch’s privacy notice, Sainsbury’s privacy policy, and the ICO’s 2023 decision on Facewatch.
Rejected, suspended, or flagged for no reason? Tell me what happened.
The notice rarely says AI. It says “not selected” or “account suspended.” I read every tip myself.
