Watson’s Personal Care Stores Pte Ltd

Facial Recognition Technology

Privacy Notice

Version 3.0, July 2026

This store uses facial recognition technology (FRT) as part of our approach to keeping our stores safe for customers and colleagues. This notice explains how it works, what personal data is involved, and your rights under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (Singapore) (PDPA).

In this notice

1Who we are 2Why we use facial recognition 3How the system works 4What we keep, and for how long 5Legal basis for processing 6Your rights 7Contact us

Who we are

Watson’s Personal Care Stores Pte Ltd (UEN: 198702314R) is the organisation responsible for your personal data at this store. If you have any questions about this notice or how we use FRT, our Data Protection Officer can be reached at dpo@watsons.com.sg.

Why we use facial recognition

Retail crime and abusive behaviour towards our staff and customers are serious issues that affect the safety and experience of everyone in our stores. FRT helps us respond to this by identifying, at the point of entry, individuals who have previously been verified as involved in theft, deception at checkout (such as barcode-switching or under-ringing), or violent or abusive conduct at our stores. In limited and carefully controlled circumstances, this may also extend to individuals who are the subject of an active police investigation for such conduct, even before any conviction has been made.

FRT is used only for this purpose. We do not use it for marketing, customer profiling, or any form of behavioural or shopping analytics.

How the system works

Cameras positioned at store entrances capture an image of each visitor and generate a temporary biometric template, which is compared against our watch list of verified individuals.

Capture

Image taken at the store entrance

›

Template

Temporary biometric template created

›

Compare

Checked against the watch list

✓No match

Your image and biometric template are deleted within seconds. Nothing is retained.

!Potential match

A trained staff member reviews and verifies the match before any action is taken.

No decision is ever made automatically by the system. No individual is approached, detained, or refused entry to our stores on the basis of an alert alone — human verification is always required first.

What we keep, and for how long

Seconds

No match

Where there is no match, your image and biometric data are deleted within seconds and nothing is stored.

6–36 months

Watch list entries

Watch list entries are retained only for as long as necessary for the purpose described above — typically between 6 and 36 months depending on the nature and seriousness of the matter — and are reviewed and deleted when no longer required.

30 days

General CCTV

General CCTV footage is retained for 30 days, unless a longer period is needed to preserve evidence of a specific incident.

Our systems and service providers are required, under written agreements, to protect your data and to process it only on our instructions. Wherever possible, data is stored on servers located in Singapore; if this changes, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place and will update this notice.

Legal basis for processing

We process personal data through the FRT system in reliance on the exceptions available under the PDPA for processing that takes place in a publicly accessible area, and for the prevention or detection of unlawful activity.

Your rights

In connection with our use of FRT, you may:

✓

ask whether you are included on our watch list, and if so, on what basis;

✓

request correction or removal of an entry you believe to be incorrect; or

✓

raise a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) at pdpc.gov.sg.

We aim to respond to requests within 30 days. In some cases, access may be limited where disclosure would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, as permitted under the PDPA; where this applies, we will explain the basis for the restriction.

Contact us

If you have any questions, or would like to exercise any of the rights described above, please contact us through any of the following:

In store

Speak to the Store Manager or any member of staff in-store.

Email our Data Protection Officer at dpo@watsons.com.sg

By post

Write to: Privacy Office, Watson’s Personal Care Stores Pte Ltd, 300 Beach Road, #39-01/04, The Concourse, Singapore 199555.

This notice is displayed in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (Singapore)

Watson’s Personal Care Stores Pte Ltd · UEN: 198702314R · Version 3.0 · July 2026

E2 Facial Recognition Technology Policy