The Wegmans on Amherst Street in North Buffalo. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker.

The word is out: Wegmans Food Markets is snooping on its customers.

The Rochester-based grocery chain isn’t just using facial recognition technology in some of its stores — a practice which has generated controversy following a report by The Gothamist on its use in New York City. Investigative Post has found that Wegmans is tracking and collecting data on customers from the moment they enter the parking lot to the moment they check out. The company won’t say whether it’s using facial recognition technology in any of its stories in Western New York. 

As soon as a shopper pulls into the store parking lot, cameras are capturing video of drivers and their license plates. Once inside the store, cameras track shoppers’ movement.

Wegmans, according to its privacy policy, collects “video recordings of you or your license plate numbers at our stores.”

The in-store cameras, sold by Axis Communications, are capable of deploying artificial intelligence programs that track people and their movements. One program the company uses can track visitor count, occupancy levels, how long a person spends in a particular area and how quickly people are moving through the store. A Wegmans spokesperson said the company doesn’t use those programs but company policy says “information” is being collected on shoppers via video cameras.

Then there’s customer cell phones. Should a shopper use the Wegmans app or connect to a store’s WiFi, the company is collecting data, such as IP addresses and geolocation information, from that cell phone or other device. Wegmans also uses cookies to track customer browsing when they interact with its website. That can include web pages you browsed prior to navigating to the Wegmans page, according to the privacy policy.

Cameras are further deployed at checkout areas where Wegmans collects information associated with your membership card, purchases and payment information. If a customer uses the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or another assistance program to make a purchase, Wegmans collects that information, too.

Parking lot cameras at Wegmans on Amherst Street. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker.

Why does Wegmans collect all of this data? 

So it can sell customers more stuff. It’s all spelled out in the company privacy policy, posted online:

“Wegmans may work with third parties to show you tailored ads. We may also work with third parties, like Google or Meta, to show Wegmans ads on these platforms,” the policy states. “We also share customer purchase data with third-party advertising platforms.”

That includes sending “de-identified purchase and profile data to product brands and advertisers” which then tailor advertisements based on the information.

Wegmans says the other information it collects, including video of shoppers, vehicles and license plates, is collected for security purposes. The company, however, won’t say how long it stores that information before deleting it.

While such practices are used by some other large retailers like Target, local grocery stores like Tops, Dash’s Market and Aldi collect only limited information on shoppers, typically when they use a shopper’s discount card.

Wegmans, with 114 stores across nine states, ranks as one of the larger grocery chains in the country. It has 11 stores in Erie County. 

Wegmans spokesperson Michele Mehaffy said the company doesn’t “and will not” change prices based on customer data — a practice known as dynamic pricing. But with all the information the company collects, experts say the possibility is there.

“There’s just a lack of protections in place to actually ensure what they say they’re doing today is actually what they’re doing,” said Jeramie Scott, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates for privacy rights.

What’s more, Mehaffy refused to say whether Wegmans is using facial recognition technology in its Western New York stores. 

Wegmans’ collection of biometric data has alarmed local lawmakers. Erie County lawmaker Lindsay Lorigo has introduced legislation that would require disclosure if a business is using facial recognition technology. And Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Facebook that he found Wegmans’ use of the technology “very troubling.” He wants to go a step further than Lorigo’s legislation and ban public retailers from collecting and storing biometric information.

“I understand the need to prevent theft,” he wrote. “But this is a serious invasion of privacy that can have negative ramifications for a person, just because they walked into a store.” 

What Wegmans is collecting

On Tuesday, an Investigative Post reporter visited the Wegmans located on Amherst Street in North Buffalo and observed numerous cameras — which look like black globes — attached to the ceiling. Those cameras are made by Axis Communications, a firm that sells a range of security cameras and related software. Axis spokesperson Chris Shanelaris confirmed Wegmans is a customer.

Shanelaris told Investigative Post the company doesn’t develop facial recognition software for its cameras but does produce other AI-powered programs. Those programs are able to identify objects in a camera’s frame and count the number of people and track how long they’re in a given area. The cameras can also run third-party software that may be capable of additional tracking information. Mehaffy said 

Shanelaris said Wegmans monitors and stores any video recorded, not Axis. If Wegmans is using Axis cameras to collect biometric data, he said, “it would be through customer-selected software, often from third-party developers, and configured and controlled entirely by the customer.”

Cameras at the Amherst Street Wegmans. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker.

Mehaffy, of Wegmans, said in-store cameras “are simply getting video of our stores” and said the company does not use AI camera programs to track customers. The company privacy policy, however, states Wegmans “collect[s] information about you in a number of ways” including “through in-store technology, such as … video cameras.”

In-store video cameras are just one way Wegmans collects information about its customers, according to the company’s privacy policy. 

That document outlines all the information Wegmans is collecting on its shoppers, including: 

• Contact information, including name, address, telephone number and email address.
• Credit and debit card numbers.
• Transaction history.
• Video recordings of “you or your license plate numbers at our stores made for security purposes.”
• Demographic information including age, income range and household information.
• Online identifiers and information collected when a person interacts with the Wegmans website or mobile application.
• Biometric information “which is limited to facial recognition information that our asset protection team uses to protect the safety and security of our customers and employees.”
• Location data pulled from your IP address or your interaction with the mobile app.
• Benefits information if a customer makes a purchase via a program like SNAP.

This information, Wegmans says in its privacy policy, is collected in numerous ways including: 

• Directly from a customer.
• From a device “associated with you or your household.”
• Via in-store WiFi, video cameras and point-of-sale equipment.
• Via “external third-party sources, such as marketing or advertising companies, service providers, and social media platforms.”
• By “drawing conclusions about you from data we have collected elsewhere.”
• Via geolocation tied to a web browser or mobile device.

In a statement, a Tops spokesperson said the grocery chain only collects information about customers when they use a BonusPlus Card. Customers, spokesperson Kathleen Sautter said, can also ask Tops to delete their data and prohibit Tops from sharing it with any third party.