The Federal Trade Commission has banned Rite Aid “from using facial recognition technology for surveillance purposes for five years,” according to a December FTC press release. The ban came following the FTC’s finding that the pharmacy retail chain “failed to implement reasonable procedures and prevent harm to consumers in its use of facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores.”

“The company did not inform consumers that it was using the technology in its stores and employees were discouraged from revealing such information,” according to the FTC. Moreover, “Employees, acting on false positive alerts, followed consumers around its stores, searched them, ordered them to leave, called the police to confront or remove consumers, and publicly accused them, sometimes in front of friends or family, of shoplifting or other wrongdoing.”