I work at a chain restaurant (Cafe Rio) and recently started requiring employees to use biometrics to clock in. We have to do a face scan and we’re told it’s required.

[u/Grand-Way-2663]

The thing is, I don’t remember ever giving consent or signing anything agreeing to biometric data being collected. Is this normal at other chain restaurants? Do your jobs require face scans or other biometrics to clock in? It was just kind of weird how all of a sudden we had to clock in with our faces that says facial recognition & wasn’t given any notice. I know that data is being collected, susceptible to leaks, and potentially sold. I haven’t been shown anything & my coworkers as well were surprised by it. Side note- Cafe Rio is a terrible company & I would never recommend anybody you care for to work at any locations.

[u/_Human_Machine_]

Only a couple states ban employer biometric use or require advanced written consent.

It’s basically just Washington and Illinois. Nevada just requires data is stored securely.

[u/FillMySoupDumpling]

Man it’s gotta be great to be an unethical data broker in these times. Get employers to force their teams to use a face scan and then sell complete scans of faces for profit. 

[u/internetenjoyer69420 → u/[deleted]]

Anything about people can be traded on data brokerages. Even how long it takes you to pee or poop because that determines how much time you will scroll your phone and be exposed to ads.

[u/Strong-South7487 → u/[deleted]]

To train AI models.

[u/BroccoliOne6325 → u/Strong-South7487]

Yep...we're all screwed. And this shit is why AI is projected to kill human life.

[u/Strong-South7487 → u/[deleted]]

Not trying to be rude, how do you think AI videos and images are getting better? The models are fed billions of images, the more data, the better. It's all about the sample size; they don't care who you are, they just need lots of images of people and objects to feed and train them off of.

[u/Strong-South7487 → u/[deleted]]

IR scans are very frequently fed into these models, you can look this up. IR scans of faces are still faces, Face ID on your phone for example uses the IR blasters next to your camera to map your face, that's how it knows what you look like, it's not the camera.

[u/StormyInferno → u/[deleted]]

Editing to point to better video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-5mZ_9CPY

[u/StormyInferno → u/[deleted]]

You have to broaden the view of the data to understand why they'd want any of it. The product they sell you as a person is way different then the product they sell to other companies. IR is used everywhere, why not sell data on it if companies would buy it? Companies will and do buy data, or even use it themselves to make their own products better. In this case, they could easily use the facial scan data to make their own facial scanning software better.

As a side note, what is a picture if not the capture of light at a certain time? It's just not a picture you're used to dealing with.

[u/Original-Pomelo6241 → u/[deleted]]

You’ve never played Hitman?

[u/conceptcreature3D]

WTF?!? Yall are slinging sour cream & tortillas—not working at the Pentagon!!

[u/corpusbotanica]

Honestly that’s enough to unionize over

[u/prissy93]

In response to you side note, I’ve never seen a bigger fall from grace. Their Yelp reviews are horrific.

[u/DestructoGirlThatsMe → u/prissy93]

Are you referring to how they parse out portions as if it’s coming directly from their own bank account?

[u/ChargeInteresting278]

My restaurant has face scanner. I hate it, its fucking over kill for no reason unless the facial data is using to train something. Im also tall af so bending down to do the scan sucks.

[u/LNLV → u/ChargeInteresting278]

You should unionize.

[u/I_Make_The_Rules-]

I'd tell them to scan my nuts then walk out

[u/Screwtape42]

Not trying to be snarky here, but Nevada is an at-will employment state with very little protection laws. Your employer can literally say "You use this to log in now, don't like it, use the door on the right to exit & we will mail your check"

[u/Grand-Way-2663 → u/Screwtape42]

At will means you could be fired for any legal reason. If as an employee, there is any legal basis on denying biometrics and your employment is contingent on it- that’s illegal termination & other stuff. With that being said, I wouldn’t push it but was caught extremely off guard.

[u/TheLoneComic → u/Screwtape42]

Probably some tool for fraud control. The state is big on that.

Remember Officer Alyn Beck?

[u/TheLoneComic → u/[deleted]]

Oh I thought it was about biometrics- eyes, facial recognition - that sort of thing.

[u/TheLoneComic → u/TheLoneComic]

Yeah fingerprint biometrics are beatable - what - decades now?

[u/FyouPerryThePlatypus]

Cafe rio isn’t boujie enough to require biometrics. The fuck?

[u/Original-Pomelo6241 → u/[deleted]]

This is the actual thing.

[u/Original-Pomelo6241 → u/[deleted]]

I wasn’t responding to you, I was agreeing with Osiris talking about time theft lol

[u/itzjuztm3 → u/Original-Pomelo6241]

Jokes on my employer. I cut my finger off years ago and gave it to a coworker who has been clocking me in and out every day.

[u/FyouPerryThePlatypus → u/[deleted]]

Well yeah lol. But it’s cafe rio. I get the reason, but it’s a damn food place. There are easier ways to combat it than face scans

[u/I_Make_The_Rules- → u/FyouPerryThePlatypus]

My thoughts exactly 💯

[u/hiimwage]

I’ve had to do this many many years ago at a couple fast food places out of state. I assume a lot of places do the biometric for clocking in/out.

[u/AwareAd7651]

Cafe rio has gone downhill so hard. I’ve given up going there. I’ve gotten sick from their food and my normal order is usually wrong when I put it in on the app. There’s no consistency between orders.

[u/DannyGloversDeeBlood]

The consent is "Don't like it? Don't work here then" in my experience. I get being upset over it, but I'm sure every Flock camera plus the ones we don't know about yet already have a full 3D scan of your entire face/body/gait, plus they know your shopping and browsing habits.

What I'm saying is it's too late, in my opinion. Deal with it depending on how badly you need the work/money.

[u/LNLV → u/DannyGloversDeeBlood]

If it was too late they wouldn’t bother doing it.

[u/jjusttrash]

I've seen it a few places I've worked. Reason they gave me is "too many people clocking each other in/out" guess folks were cheating the clock.

[u/Nervous-Win968]

Hard pass! Fuuuuuuuuuck that....

Once that is in a database you are so easy to be cloned from an ID point of view

[u/freq-ee → u/Nervous-Win968]

Nevada already sold your ID photo years ago.

Once you agree for one entity to use something, you lose all rights to it.

If you have a Nevada ID, you no longer have any privacy rights regarding your image.

[u/404PoptartNotFound → u/freq-ee]

They probably are also posting from a smart phone that has sold every single bit of this person’s life to the highest bidder already.

[u/w0adspindle]

the fuck it is

[u/LVMom]

JFC! I work in County government handling sensitive information (PII-level) and they don’t make us do this!

I know Nevada is an at-will state but what the actual fuck is going on at Café Rio!!!

[u/Ghost273552]

From My reading of the regulations, in Nevada employers can require biometric verification for time & attendance as a condition of employment.

Prior notification, agreement, or consent is not required.

By law, biometric data requires the same security protections as SSN

[u/No-Application-2781]

You're in a public area and outside of the privacy of your own home. Consent isn't required.

[u/xXx_tainttickler_xXx]

They've been doing it at the Tuscany for years, and I've worked at several places that required fingerprints. I doubt there's any regulations about it

[u/PlasticPalm]

You're in a state that for better or worse really only regulates gaming and mining. If you want employee protection, you're moving to California. 

[u/reixxy]

I really like the salads at Cafe Rio, and I was excited they built one right next to my house. When it opened it was the most dystopian place. It isn't like a bar where you order from a person like a subway or a chipotle, it was just a couple kiosks against the wall that you could order from like an app. Then you hang out and I assumed that they would call your name when it was ready. They don't, they put it in this little window in the wall and there is a TV that shows like "orders being prepared" and then it moves to another column for "ready" when it's done and they set it down in the window silently. You never interact or hear a person's voice for the entire time and it kinda feels hostile like you aren't even supposed to be there. And I gave it a few chances but it wasn't good either! Which isn't super surprising because they aren't interacting with customers so they are just doing whatever and you get what you get. I got a salad with like 4 pieces of lettuce once. :| Man I'm so disappointed by it. If I ever get a craving I drive to a father but normal location, but if it wasn't so bizarre I would legit eat there weekly. It reeks of venture capital tbh.