Annie Kelly

Today, coming to a store near you, the rise of live facial recognition.

These stories sound like they happened in the same place, but they didn't.

They're three different shoppers in three different parts of the UK, all flagged by AI systems they didn't even know were watching them.

And it could be happening to you too.

Every time you walk into a supermarket or down the street...

Live facial recognition is being hailed as a powerful new frontier in the fight against crime.

Not just by police, but private companies too.

And as it spreads, it will expand surveillance into more and more public spaces.

And the problem is, it doesn't always get it right.

From The Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly.

Today in Focus, is Big Brother watching you shop?

Jessica Murray, you're The Guardian's social affairs correspondent.

Welcome back to Today on Focus.

You have recently done this reporting where you spoke to different people who were very abruptly asked to leave a shop by security guards because they'd been identified by something called Live Facial Recognition or LFR.

You know, none of us are any strangers to CCTV.

We all know we're being filmed when we're in supermarkets.

But can you tell us what is LFR and how is it different?

And tell me how that would play out in that supermarket setting.

We've heard from those three people that experienced this firsthand.

But can you tell us how it is that supermarkets are using this?