Just saw a coffee shop in Austin scanning faces at the register

I walked into this place on Congress Avenue and they had a tablet asking for my photo before I could order, and nobody else in line seemed to care that the shop was building a biometric database just so I could pay for a $4 latte, has anyone else run into this creepy setup yet?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna5672mo ago

Wait didn't I see a news article about some coffee chain in California getting sued over facial recognition last month? That's wild that people were just cool with it like it's no big deal. I get that they probably want to speed things up or track repeat customers, but scanning your face just to buy a latte feels way too invasive for my comfort level. Honestly if that happened to me I'd probably just walk out and find a different shop, there's plenty of places that take cash or a card without needing my biometric data.

richard_sanchez431mo ago

@uma_baker88 same here lol I was at a Starbucks in San Diego and saw those camera screens and just noped out. I get they wanna be cutting edge but scanning my face just for a cold brew is creepy. My roommate tried it once and said it kept getting her order wrong anyway, so what's even the point. Better off just going to the local spot down the street that remembers your name without needing a computer to do it.

uma_baker882mo ago

Right?! Same thing happened near me and I walked straight out. No thanks.