Self Service Till Checkout Cameras- Is the Close Surveillance they force on us even Legal ?

Zentex

I was forced into an Aldi self checkout as they would not open a till for any of us (despite telling us when first introduced , all we had to was ask for a manned checkout till to be opened if we wanted one to use) , their was a big queue behind me waiting. 
I had a lot of shopping, it took me ages, I had to twice get help, the £20 note would not go in for 10 attempts and to top it off I was watched by Big Brother at the till the whole time without my explicit consent. I have known they have ceiling cameras and am fine with this but this was the first time I saw myself on a big screen above the checkout till, which I found very intrusive indeed.
Do Supermarkets have to warn people they are being surveilled in writing anywhere in the Store? Does this infringe our civil rights to anonymity? By law would they have to open a till if you do not give consent to be closely surveilled at a self service till ? Does anybody know the law around all of this please?
I resented the whole experience and was not expecting to be told it was self service or nothing ! 
When I voiced my dissatisfaction again after scanning over them not opening a till for the big line of customers behind me  I was warned by a very  stressed shop assistant I would be banned by from the store if I continued
I have never been treated so badly in any supermarket in the country.
Is there any way the People can challenge the shops over being forced to scan dozens of items at 5X the time it takes them to do it all? I am a busy person I do NOT have time to scan my own shopping and forcing others to wait a very long time to get to the till. I would love a consumer backlash which is effective to get them to change back to at least 70% manned tills open, any chance of this happening?

marcia_

Zentex said:

I was forced into an Aldi self checkout as they would not open a till for any of us (despite telling us when first introduced , all we had to was ask for a manned checkout till to be opened if we wanted one to use) , their was a big queue behind me waiting. 
I had a lot of shopping, it took me ages, I had to twice get help, the £20 note would not go in for 10 attempts and to top it off I was watched by Big Brother at the till the whole time WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT CONSENT.
Do Supermarkets have to warn people they are being surveilled in writing anywhere in the Store? Does this infringe our civil rights to anonymity? By law would they have to open a till if you do not give consent to be closely surveilled at a self service till ? Does anybody know the law around all of this please?
I resented the whole experience and was not expecting to be told it was self service or nothing ! 
When I voiced my dissatisfaction over them not opening a till I was warned I would be banned by from the store by the woman manning the tills.
I have never been treated so badly in any supermarket in the country.
Is there any way the People can challenge the shops over being forced to scan dozens of items at 5X the time it takes them to do it all? I am a busy person I do NOT have time to scan my own shopping and forcing others to wait a very long time to get to the till. I would love a consumer backlash which is effective to get them to change back to at least 70% manned tills open, any chance of this happening?

 Yes it is so long as they comply with the ICO requirements. Notices stating they are recording, which you will find near the entrance to the store. Only keeping the data for as long as is necessary.

HampshireH

Zentex said:

 to top it off I was watched by Big Brother at the till the whole time WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT CONSENT.
Do Supermarkets have to warn people they are being surveilled in writing anywhere in the Store? 

You'll find most will have CCTV too. You aren't just being watched at the till . There will be signs up and by entering the store and shopping there you've chosen to accept this

eddddy

Zentex said:

Is there any way the People can challenge the shops over being forced to scan dozens of items at 5X the time it takes them to do it all? I am a busy person I do NOT have time to scan my own shopping and forcing others to wait a very long time to get to the till. 

Realistically, the way you can challenge this is by refusing to give them your business and shopping elsewhere.

I suspect the supermarket's business position would be:

• By using self-checkouts, they reduce staff costs which means they can sell goods more cheaply

• You are free to use other supermarkets with staffed checkouts, but they might charge you more for goods, in order to cover the cost of checkout staff

You say you're a busy person, maybe an interesting strategy for supermarkets would be to offer 2 checkout options:

• For shoppers who are more concerned about overall cost, and less concerned about time - they use the the clumsy, slow self-checkouts

• For shoppers who are busy and time constrained - they offer a premium checkout service, where a staff member scans your shopping at a staffed checkout in 1/5th of the time, for a fee of £2

The £2 fee goes towards paying the wages of the staff member.

(So cost conscious shoppers who use self-checkouts, aren't subsidising time constrained shoppers who want to use staffed checkouts.)

Emmia

HampshireH said:

Zentex said:

 to top it off I was watched by Big Brother at the till the whole time WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT CONSENT.
Do Supermarkets have to warn people they are being surveilled in writing anywhere in the Store? 

You'll find most will have CCTV too. You aren't just being watched at the till . There will be signs up and by entering the store and shopping there you've chosen to accept this

The truth is, CCTV is everywhere - people apparently get captured on CCTV ~70 times a day, and I expect it's a lot more if you live in a city like London.

You've almost certainly given your formal consent to none of these schemes  - think of all the houses with ring doorbells you walk past on your way to work, the pub, shops etc. or dash cams in cars or go pro cameras on the helmets of cyclists.

donnac2558

The local M&S food hall self-service tills have cameras above each till, even a large notice stating they are there for customers safety.  You cannot miss them, in fact, looking straight at the screen as you put your shopping through.  As I have never intended, shoplifting never worried me.

Largs

These cameras worked in my favour when I left my mobile down in the ASDA Supermarket and I was reunited with it.  This was me taking it out to scan the reward APP and getting harrased. I wish they would scrap these points/rewards APPS and just have low prices like ALDI but that's another story.  

user1977

Zentex said:

Does this infringe our civil rights to anonymity? By law would they have to open a till if you do not give consent to be closely surveilled at a self service till ? 

Others have already pointed you towards data protection legislation, but otherwise there are no "civil rights to anonymity".

Not sure why you think the staffed tills (or the rest of the store in general) are any less surveilled? CCTV has been in shops since the 1970s.

The only other legal point I can see is that if you have a relevant disability which affects your use of self-service tills you could ask them to make reasonable adjustments to assist you.

TELLIT01

The only form of protest which would be vaguely effective is to leave the full basket and walk out.  At least then the shop has the inconvenience of having to put everything back.  That would probably take longer than actually opening a till to scan the items.

TELLIT01

Zentex said:

When I voiced my dissatisfaction over them not opening a till I was warned I would be banned by from the store by the woman manning the tills.

Nobody would be banned for simply saying they weren't happy with the situation.  I would suggest that, at best, this was a case of "It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it".  At worst becoming abusive to staff.

Grumpy_chap

Zentex said:

Is there any way the People can challenge the shops over being forced to scan dozens of items at 5X the time it takes them to do it all? I am a busy person I do NOT have time to scan my own shopping

There are plenty of ways to avoid being forced to use a self-service check-out:

• Shop at a time when the staffed tills are open
• Shop at a different store without self-service tills
• Shop and online and receive home delivery
• Send the Butler or the Maid to do the shopping
• Eat in restaurants so there is no shopping to do at all