Ask HN: How do self-checkout cameras recording your face prevent theft?
I've noticed cameras pointed at a customer's face popping up in self-checkout lines at Target and Walmart. Do these actually prevent theft, since they don't seem to record the area where you scan/bag your items?
At first I thought that the cameras might record your face so that the companies could later cross-reference that recording with the time(s) that items were stolen... but if there is a separate such system in place to catch stolen items, I sure don't see it.
(I feel like I should specify that I have no interest in stealing items via the self-checkout line; I'm just annoyed I'm getting recorded if that recording serves no practical purpose.)
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Turns out he was hitting up the local home depot self checkout with credit card dumps he bought online, and picking up 100 $50 iTunes cards in less than 2 hours.
I ended up referring the guy to someone with higher risk tolerance, but I hope that gives you a better understanding of the scale. That's simply not possible with conventional checkouts.
Have you ever seen low-res security footage where the perpetrator was hard to identify? Timestamps + secondary cameras can help with identification.