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AIAAIC-0543

BMW, Kohler, MaxMara covertly used facial recognition to track Chinese shoppers

Bathroom fixture maker Kohler, fashion house MaxMara and BMW were singled out by the Chinese authorities for covertly using facial recognition to monitor and analyse shopper movements in their mainland China stores. CCTV alleged the three companies had failed to inform or gain permission from visitors to their stores that they were being surveilled and their facial images analysed and matched. Chinese national data privacy legislation that started on January 1, 2021, requires that u ser are informed and their consent is given when private and sensitive is collected and processed. The allegations about the three companies were made during events marking China's annual Consumer Rights Day.

Date it happened
2021-01-01
Organisation involved
Kohler; BMW; MaxMara
Where this came from
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Attribution

This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.