Russian retailer launches facial recognition payment system

An X5 group representative demonstrates a facial recognition payment system at a self-checkout machine in a Perekrestok supermarket in Moscow. — AFP

MOSCOW: Russia’s X5 group, the country's leading food retailer, announced on March 10 the launch of a facial recognition payment system, the latest expansion of a technology that has sparked privacy and security concerns.

To launch its facial recognition payment system the X5 group, which owns the Pyaterochka convenience stores and the Perekrestok supermarket chain, has joined forces with the Visa payment system and Russia’s state giant Sberbank that is striving to become an IT company.