Mall of America is under fire for its use of facial recognition tech

Two state senators from across the aisle have come together to call on the Mall of America to pause its newly implemented facial recognition technology.

“Public policy concerns surrounding privacy rights and facial recognition technologies have yet to be resolved, including the high risks of abuse, data breaches, identity theft, liability and accountability,” Minnesota State Senator Eric Lucero, a Republican, said in a statement last week. “It is very clear the continued implementation of facial recognition technology should not move forward until concerns are addressed, including input from citizens, civil liberty and data practices advocates, and state and local government officials.”

The U.S.’s most famous mall added the technology at the end of June following gun-related incidents in recent years.

The system isn’t scanning faces to necessarily figure out who each visitor is, according to the Mall’s FAQ page. Rather, it’s looking for persons of interest. It supposedly will track banned individuals, trespassers, threat actors, missing persons, or those who may be in danger. The persons of interest will be put into a database and cameras around the mall will scan visitors’ faces to see if there’s any matches. Photos are deleted if no matches come up.

Facial recognition technology has come under fire broadly for the risks of abuse and data breaches. According to the the American Civil Liberties Union, numerous studies have shown that facial recognition technology misidentifies Black people and other people of color at higher rates than white people.

“The potential for racial profiling, harassment and false arrests is clear,” Democratic Senator Omar Fateh said.

The company said that the software is powered by an algorithm that’s undergone rigorous testing. The Department of Homeland Security found that it correctly identified individuals 99.3% of the time.

A spokesperson for the Mall of America said in a statement the facial recognition software is trained to only look for so-called persons of interest (POIs). “POIs are individuals who are currently on a trespass at Mall of America, those who may be a threat to our environment, persons identified to us by law enforcement, or individuals who are missing or may be in danger,” the spokesperson said. “Our facial recognition technology does not identify or store facial data for anyone who is not a POI. Therefore, we do not know the identity of any shopper unless they match a photo of a POI.”

Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Mall of America.

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