In January, Home Depot investors demanded answers about the company’s use of flock safety license plate readers in store parking lots after reports that the data had been used in immigration investigations through local law enforcement.

That is the part that makes this feel bigger than one agency or one policy.

Surveillance is now spreading through a mix of private companies, store parking lots, local police, and federal investigations.

A person can drive into a hardware store and leave behind more than tire tracks.

They can leave behind location data that moves through systems they never agreed to and may never even know exist.

Face recognition brings another layer of fear because it can turn the human face itself into a key that opens someone else’s database.

In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission banned Write Aid from using facial recognition for surveillance for 5 years after saying the company failed to use reasonable safeguards.

The agency said the system produced thousands of false matches.

That means innocent people could be wrongly flagged just for walking into a store.

And this is not only an American problem.

In 2025, China published rules saying people should not be forced to verify who they are with facial data and should be given other options.

Those rules came after rising public worry over face scans in places like hotels and gated communities.

When even countries already filled with cameras have to answer growing fears about face scans, it tells you the discomfort is real.

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