popular tea chain

Bengaluru

Chaayos

billing process

Outlet’s facial recognition scheme has divided customersYou can show your face and sip a cuppa. That is what Chaayos, ain, is asking you to do. Customers walking in to theoutlet in Indiranagar are in for a surprise as instead of giving the mobile number during the, the outlet asks for facial recognition. However, not many are enjoying this surprise, as they say it is a breach of privacy.When BM went to check out the process, this is what we found.When a customer wants to order a tea from the billing counter, he/she is asked to press a ‘Start’ button on a small screen kept in front. When the customer presses the Start button, a camera option is opened and the billing counter staff takes a picture of the customer’s face.The employee said that this was for offers that the customers can get in future. So, when you visit Chaayos for fourth or fifth time, it automatically registers your face every time and at the fifth time it says that you are ready to avail of a discount on your fourth/fifth visit.An employee said, “If someone is not carrying their mobile phone or are not able to get their OTP, they don’t have to worry. Their picture is stored internally, which is not revealed to the staff or to anyone. The picture is kept in the system and it automatically tells you when you have visited and if it is the fourth or fifth according to our offers, the customers will get a discount. That is the only why we are taking photos.”Kavya S, a college student, who went to the outlet said she was taken aback at the facial recognition option.Supreme Court advocate KV Dhananjaya called the move unacceptable, if the outlet is insisting on it. “If a customer gets into a place and wants to buy tea with his or her card, there’s nothing illegal about it. Also, if the outlet is allowing customers to come in without any restrictions, then too there’s no problem. But if it is asking for face recognition before billing inside a licensed premises, that is illegal. Licensed premises should always be protected.”He says there is no need to know the identity of a person who wants to order a cup of tea. “They cannot do that. Customers should have a choice of remaining anonymous. Customers need to know these Terms and Conditions outside the store itself. If not, they should stop or BBMP should withdraw the license,” he said.Reacting to this, a representative of Chaayos says, “We have a loyalty programme which uses facial recognition technology to identify repeat customers. For the first time, the system is loaded with the customer’s phone number and later on if the customer visits the store again the system immediately captures the face without the phone number. The customer is also given a choice of opting out of face recognition. It was started because it was better than the touch screen technology.”He said he got some negative comments from customers, but on the whole, they have also received a lot of positive comments since this is a unique system.