Revolut is trialling facial recognition payments in London cafés, so customers pay just by looking at the till. Handy upgrade, or a risk to your biometric data?
Revolut's opt-in "Pay with Smile" pilot ran from 24 to 26 September at three Kiss the Hippo cafés, which plans to extend it to all 12 of its sites later this year. Revolut says face data is deleted after each payment. Privacy campaigners point out that a face, unlike a card, can't be replaced if it leaks.
What happened
On 24 September Revolut began piloting Pay with Smile, which it calls the UK's first in-store facial recognition checkout, at three Kiss the Hippo cafés in London. Customers who opt in pay by looking at a Revolut terminal, and their face is checked against the selfies they registered when they joined Revolut. Revolut says the facial data used for each payment is deleted once the sale is confirmed and isn't kept by merchants, who pay no processing fees. Similar systems have run in China since 2017.
Why people disagree
Supporters say paying by face is quicker than cards or phones, cuts costs for small businesses and is opt-in, so nobody is forced to use it. Critics, including Big Brother Watch, say a face can't be changed like a stolen card, that leaked face scans could be used for fraud or deepfakes, and that the UK lacks a dedicated facial recognition law. They also point to a Revolut data breach disclosed this month involving customers' ID documents.
What's still unclear
It's unclear whether customers actually want to pay by face, how widely Revolut will roll the system out after the trial, and whether UK regulators will set specific rules for biometric payments.
Sources
More takes
Amazon has blocked Meta's new AI shopping agent, Muse, from buying on Amazon.com. Protecting customers' accounts, or shutting out an assistant shoppers chose?
Trump wants an "AI Force" and won't slow AI down to beat China, while Nvidia's CEO calls safety warnings "irresponsible." Right call, or ignoring the experts?
