A sign on the storefront window warns incoming shoppers: "Facial recognition and CCTV in operation for the protection of our customers and colleagues." At the entrance to the Sports Direct store in Stoke Newington, a residential area in northeast London, the black ball oscillating in its white base is visible. In the United Kingdom, a country whose capital is home to the highest density of surveillance cameras in the world outside China, facial recognition is increasingly widespread: 97 for 1,000 inhabitants compared with 2.1 for 1,000 inhabitants in Paris, according to figures from British security company Clarion Security Systems and France's Interior Ministry.

"Not so long ago, only the police was using this technology," noted Daragh Murray, a specialist in new technologies and human rights at Queen Mary University of London. "But since about two years, its roll out has expanded dramatically in privately owned spaces." It is now used in supermarkets, nightclub entrances, and even public spaces.

The main provider of this type of service is Facewatch, founded in 2010 by Simon Gordon, the owner of a wine bar who became fed up with theft. Its technology, launched in 2019, is used by over 70 business owners: Supermarkets, furniture stores, discount stores, garden centers, local grocery stores... Some, like Frasers Group, the owner of the Sports Direct, Flannels and USC chains, manage more than 900 stores.

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