--- title: Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're... description: Facewatch, a facial recognition system deployed in over 100 UK shops including Sainsbury's, B&M, and Spar, is launching a feature this autumn that will... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're flagged | daily.dev og:description: Facewatch, a facial recognition system deployed in over 100 UK shops including Sainsbury's, B&M, and Spar, is launching a feature this autumn that will... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TR7Upg8cz.png og:image:alt: Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're flagged og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're flagged **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Facewatch, a facial recognition system deployed in over 100 UK shops including Sainsbury's, B&M, and Spar, is launching a feature this autumn that will automatically alert police within four seconds when a flagged individual enters a store. Civil liberties groups including Liberty, Big Brother Watch, and the Open Rights Group are calling it a dangerous escalation, citing concerns about a secret private blacklist, racial misidentification bias, lack of consent, and the absence of regulatory oversight for private firms. While retailers cite spiralling shoplifting statistics to justify the technology, critics warn that the planned government law on facial recognition would cover police but not private companies like Facewatch, creating a potential backdoor for unaccountable surveillance. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Brit supermarket giant triples down on facial recog to nab shoplifters](https://daily.dev/posts/brit-supermarket-giant-triples-down-on-facial-recog-to-nab-shoplifters-1lzn8cusz) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Shopper wrongfully ejected after facial recognition alert](https://daily.dev/posts/shopper-wrongfully-ejected-after-facial-recognition-alert-vwubawoqr) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Met police trials new tech to counter shoplifting scourge](https://daily.dev/posts/met-police-trials-new-tech-to-counter-shoplifting-scourge-ajjgf2mwp) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#facial-recognition](https://daily.dev/tags/facial-recognition) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're flagged","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T12:58:21.716Z","dateModified":"2026-07-10T12:58:57.542Z","description":"Facewatch, a facial recognition system deployed in over 100 UK shops including Sainsbury's, B&M, and Spar, is launching a feature this autumn that will...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/afb606bb29a305673b91a04968177bbe?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/afb606bb29a305673b91a04968177bbe?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/facewatch-will-alert-uk-police-in-seconds-when-you-re-flagged-tr7upg8cz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy,facial-recognition","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Facewatch will alert UK police in seconds when you're flagged"}]} ```