Major retailers in the US are already using facial recognition cameras to spy on shoppers, a campaigning group has warned. The tech - usually associated with authoritative regimes like China - is being used both to identify shoplifters and serve'personalized' adverts. Caitlin Seeley George of anti-face recognition campaign group Fight for the Future told DailyMail.com Walgreens and Macy's are among the largest retailers to adopt the technology, deploying it in hundreds of stores across the country. And it is not just America - Britain is also adopting the tech.

All day and every day, you constantly receive highly personalized instructions for how to comply with the law, sent directly by your government and law enforcement. You're told how to cross the street, how fast to drive on the way to work, and what you're allowed to say or do online--if you're in any situation that might have legal implications, you're told exactly what to do, in real time. Imagine that the computer system formulating these personal legal directives at mass scale is so complex that no one can explain how it reasons or works. But if you ignore a directive, the system will know, and it'll be used as evidence in the prosecution that's sure to follow. This future may not be far off--automatic detection of lawbreaking is nothing new.