The Western Lights Wegmans pictured at night. Credit: Central Current

Onondaga County lawmakers are considering proposing legislation to force businesses using biometric surveillance, such as Wegmans, to disclose the use of that technology to customers entering their buildings. 

Following the lead of lawmakers in Erie and Monroe counties, Majority Leader Nodesia Hernandez is drafting legislation that would make businesses collecting biometric identifier information — such as facial recognition scans, eye scans, and voice prints — to make clear to their customers that the store is using biometric surveillance tools to scan and store data on customers.

Wegmans, the popular grocery store based in Rochester, has endured a week of criticism from elected officials and civil liberties advocates after the Gothamist reported the company had quietly put up signage at select locations in New York City describing that the grocery store was surveilling their facial features.

That disclosure resulted from a local law mandating the announcement, legislation that local lawmakers upstate are hoping to emulate.

In Erie County, Legislator Lindsay Lorigo is proposing the Erie County Customer Biometric Privacy Act, which would require signage at public entrances and prohibit businesses from selling data to third parties. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is also supporting that legislation.

Hernandez said she and her colleagues are currently working with the county attorney to draft similar legislation. 

“We recognize the significance of protecting constituents’ privacy, particularly with the growing utilization of AI and technology, which heightens the risk of private information being compromised,” said Hernandez. 

The proposed legislation in Onondaga County would incorporate audio and Braille signage to ensure accessibility, Hernandez said, and would include efforts to educate constituents through direct engagement and social media.

While Wegmans has yet to clarify whether it is employing biometric surveillance beyond New York City stores, the Buffalo-based Investigative Post on Friday published a report detailing other forms of surveillance the Wegmans uses to track its customers from the moment they enter a Wegmans parking lot.

Hernandez said she is still working out whether she will bring the legislation as a local law or a resolution. Local laws or ordinances do not need to go through the committee process, she said. 

Chairwoman Nicole Watts said that the Democratic Caucus is uncertain the legislation will be completed in time to appear on the agenda for February’s legislative session. 

Legislators in both parties expressed concerns about the technology. Minority Leader Brian May said he thought the biometric surveillance was “a violation of personal privacy,” while also pointing out that the collection of personal data has become an almost ubiquitous aspect of everyday life. 

“You want someone going through your purse when you’re not looking? It sure doesn’t seem right without my permission,” May said. 

Legislator Maurice Brown said he found the use of biometric data concerning, especially in the age of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement crackdowns. ICE agents are using facial recognition software to surveil noncitizens and citizens, and the White House has contracted with surveillance and data broker Palantir to develop a database on Americans.

May said there was a “parallel” between Wegmans collecting biometric data and the license plate readers the county once almost instituted, but ultimately decided not to fund or endorse. 

“It treats innocent people as though they’re guilty. It captures information on the whereabouts and activities of people without their permission,” May said of LPRs. 

While Wegmans use of biometric surveillance tools concerns May, he said he is not yet certain what role the county should play in regulating surveillance technology. May said he would have to see Hernandez’ legislation, legal review, and deliberative process to know whether he would support it.

Fellow Republican legislator Tim Burtis also said he had not yet formed an opinion on what the legislature should do, but said he will have to consider what an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy is.

The county’s top official, County Executive Ryan McMahon, is currently researching the biometric surveillance at the heart of the Wegmans controversy, according to McMahon’s spokesman Justin Sayles.

“The County Executive is studying the issue both pro and con,” Sayles on Thursday wrote in a statement to Central Current. “We don’t have anything to announce at this time.”

If enacted in Onondaga County, the legislation’s mandates would touch businesses beyond Wegmans. Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement have each endured class action lawsuits and other backlash for rolling out similar biometric surveillance in those companies’ stores.

Home Depot and Lowe’s did not respond to a Central Current reporter’s requests for comment.

A bill in the state legislature, sponsored by Senator Rachel May of Central New York, would prohibit the use of biometric surveillance systems and information in areas of public accommodations altogether. “Places of public accommodations” is a broad term encompassing publicly accessible areas where commerce is conducted. Examples, among many others, include restaurants, grocery stores, and banks.

Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart is also considering introducing legislation to mandate biometric surveillance disclosure, though she isn’t sure how the proposal would fare in the county’s legislature. However, Barnhart believes regulation is necessary and inevitable, as surveillance technology will only grow in use and sophistication.

Barnhart said current concerns about biometric surveillance are only scratching the surface of what the integration of this technology portends for consumers’ everyday lives. 

“This is the future: tailoring your retail experience based upon your specific, unique profile,” Barnhart said. “And that raises a lot of different kinds of considerations about the power of corporations over setting prices for things that we need in our basic lives.”

Biometric surveillance tools, Barnhart believes, will eventually gain capabilities beyond anything a current observer could imagine. Disclosure of biometric surveillance tools, then, is the “bare minimum” that customers should be able to expect from businesses like Wegmans, Barnhart said.

As the immigration enforcement agencies tasked with conducting President Donald Trump’s deportation operations have increasingly integrated facial recognition and other biometric data into their efforts, Barnhart has concerns about businesses or entities conducting surveillance and data collection.

From license plate reader data to facial recognition scans, ICE and its sister agencies have leveraged whatever data they can obtain to advance their detention and deportation initiatives.

ICE in 2025 also paid Palantir $30 million to develop an immigrant surveillance program.

“In the age of Trump’s constitutional abuses, this is even more scary,” Barnhart said. “So there are a lot of concerns about anyone collecting and using this type of data on a mass level, and the immigration is just part of it. But we’ve all known that it’ll start with immigrants, and go to US citizens pretty quickly.”

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...

Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...