A Rite Aid store stands in Brooklyn on August 28, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission proposed to bar Rite Aid from using facial recognition software in its drugstores for five years to settle allegations it improperly used the technology to identify shoplifters, the agency said Tuesday.
The FTC alleged that from 2012 to 2020, Rite Aid deployed facial recognition technology in hundreds of its retail pharmacies across several states in order to identify customers it had previously deemed likely to be shoplifting or engaging in other criminal activity. But the system generated thousands of false-positive matches, according to the FTC, resulting in some shoppers being mistakenly flagged as persons of interest.
Those individuals were detained or searched by Rite Aid employees, subjected to increased surveillance, publicly accused of criminal activity, reported to police, and in some cases banned from entering or making purchases at Rite Aid stores, the FTC alleged.
Rite Aid’s facial recognition technology was more likely to generate false positives in stores located in predominantly Black and Asian neighborhoods than in predominantly white communities, where 80% of Rite Aid stores are located, the FTC claims.
Rite Aid relied on facial technology from two undisclosed vendors, the agency said. It maintained a database of persons of interest that included images collected from security camera footage, driver’s licenses or government IDs, along with data such as names, years of birth, and “information related to criminal or ‘dishonest’ behavior in which individuals had allegedly engaged,” the FTC alleged in its complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. There were “at least tens of thousands of individuals in its database,” the agency alleged.
As part of the proposed settlement, the FTC said Rite Aid must order third parties to delete images or photos collected by its facial recognition system, notify shoppers when biometric data is collected or used in connection with its security or surveillance systems, among other requirements. It will also require Rite Aid to permanently discontinue using the technology if it can’t control potential risks to consumers.
Rite Aid said in a press release that it’s pleased to reach an agreement with the FTC but that it disagrees with the agency’s allegations.
“The allegations relate to a facial recognition technology pilot program the Company deployed in a limited number of stores,” the company said, adding that it stopped using the technology more than three years ago, before the FTC initiated its investigation.
The FTC action comes after a Reuters investigation in 2020 detailed Rite Aid’s use of facial recognition technology in primarily lower-income, non-white neighborhoods. Reuters identified facial recognition software providers DeepCam and FaceFirst as RiteAid’s vendors. FaceFirst’s technology routinely misidentified Black individuals as shoplifters, the Reuters investigation found.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates continue to raise alarms around the use of facial recognition software and the need for further regulation. The technology has led to increased surveillance, and numerous studies have shown the artificial intelligence underpinning the technology is more likely to misidentify people of color, leading to wrongful arrests.
The proposed settlement is subject to approval by a court overseeing Rite Aid’s bankruptcy proceedings. The drugstore chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October amid slowing sales, rising debt and lawsuits alleging it contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic.
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro chastised Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday over the company’s response to pressure from the Trump administration to make more of its products outside of China.
“Going back to the first Trump term, Tim Cook has continually asked for more time in order to move his factories out of China,” Navarro said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I mean it’s the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”
CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment on Navarro’s criticism.
President Donald Trump has in recent months ramped up demands for Apple to move production of its iconic iPhone to the U.S. from overseas. Apple’s flagship phone is produced primarily in China, but the company has increasingly boosted production in India, partly to avoid the higher cost of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump in May warned Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. In separate remarks, Trump said he told Cook, “I don’t want you building in India.”
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Analysts and supply chain experts have argued it would be impossible for Apple to completely move iPhone production to the U.S. By some estimates, a U.S.-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500.
Navarro said Cook isn’t shifting production out of China quickly enough.
“With all these new advanced manufacturing techniques and the way things are moving with AI and things like that, it’s inconceivable to me that Tim Cook could not produce his iPhones elsewhere around the world and in this country,” Navarro said.
Apple currently makes very few products in the U.S. During Trump’s first term, Apple extended its commitment to assemble the $3,000 Mac Pro in Texas.
In February, Apple said it would spend $500 billion within the U.S., including on assembling some AI servers.
CoreWeave founders Brian Venturo, at left in sweatshirt, and Mike Intrator slap five after ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq headquarters in New York on March 28, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence hyperscaler CoreWeave said Monday it will acquire Core Scientific, a leading data center infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $9 billion.
Coreweave stock fell about 4% on Monday while Core Scientific stock plummeted about 20%. Shares of both companies rallied at the end of June after the Wall Street Journal reported that talks were underway for an acquisition.
The deal strengthens CoreWeave’s position in the AI arms race by bringing critical infrastructure in-house.
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said the move will eliminate $10 billion in future lease obligations and significantly enhance operating efficiency.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
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The deal expands CoreWeave’s access to power and real estate, giving it ownership of 1.3 gigawatts of gross capacity across Core Scientific’s U.S. data center footprint, with another gigawatt available for future growth.
Core Scientific has increasingly focused on high-performance compute workloads since emerging from bankruptcy and relisting on the Nasdaq in 2024.
Core Scientific shareholders will receive 0.1235 CoreWeave shares for each share they hold — implying a $20.40 per-share valuation and a 66% premium to Core Scientific’s closing stock price before deal talks were reported.
After closing, Core Scientific shareholders will own less than 10% of the combined company.
Two young men stand inside a shopping mall in front of a large illuminated Apple logo seen through a window in Chongqing, China, on June 4, 2025.
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Apple on Monday appealed what it called an “unprecedented” 500 million euro ($586 million) fine issued by the European Union for violating the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
“As our appeal will show, the EC [European Commission] is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users,” the company said in a statement. “We implemented this to avoid punitive daily fines and will share the facts with the Court.”
Apple recently made changes to its App Store‘s European policies that the company said would be in compliance with the DMA and would avoid the fines.
The Commission, which is the executive body of the EU, announced its fine in April, saying that Apple “breached its anti-steering obligation” under the DMA with restrictions on the App Store.
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“Due to a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, app developers cannot fully benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store,” the commission wrote. “Similarly, consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers.”
Under the DMA, tech giants like Apple and Google are required to allow businesses to inform end-users of offers outside their platform — including those at different prices or with different conditions.
Companies like Epic Games and Spotify have complained about restrictions within the App Store that make it harder for them to communicate alternative payment methods to iOS users.
Apple typically takes a 15%-30% cut on in-app purchases.