Page 37 - HW July 2022

Facial recognition stirs up hornet’s nest
global eyes
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WHEN AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER watchdog CHOICE raised
the issue of Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys using facial recognition technology in retail stores, they stirred up a hornet’s nest as might be expected.
Key to CHOICE’s worries was the limited signage indicating the use of facial recognition technology in some stores – “the signs were small, inconspicuous and would have been missed by most shoppers” – and that the retailers’ privacy policies were also hard to find.
Customers could remain “largely unaware” of the practice
as a result, it said, positing that the retailers were potentially in breach of Australia’s Privacy Act, and making a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC).
Following a general media hooha, The Good Guys has since paused the use of facial recognition technology in its stores while the OAIC investigates the complaint.
“The Good Guys today confirmed it will pause the trial of the upgraded security system with the optional facial recognition technology,” said a spokesperson for the appliance retailer according to the CHOICE website.
“The decision was made to pause the trial at this time pending any clarification from the OAIC regarding the use of this technology.”
As for Bunnings, facial recognition is being used to combat shrinkage and augment staff safety and Simon McDowell, Bunnings Chief Operating Officer, had this to say: “We are disappointed by CHOICE’s inaccurate characterisation of Bunnings’ use of facial recognition technology in selected stores.
“This technology is used solely to keep team and customers safe and prevent unlawful activity in our stores, which is consistent with the Privacy Act.
“In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of challenging interactions our team have had to handle in our stores and this technology is an important tool in helping us to prevent repeat abuse and threatening behaviour towards our team and customers.
“There are strict controls around the use of the technology which can only be accessed by specially trained team.
“This technology is not used for marketing, consumer behaviour tracking, and images of children are never enrolled. “We let customers know if the technology is in use through
signage at our store entrances and also in our privacy policy, which is available via the homepage of our website.”
Check out its Australian privacy policy under the URL below, which says that “images from facial recognition software [may be used] for loss prevention or store safety purposes.”
And note that Bunnings has confirmed that it does not use facial recognition technology in New Zealand.
www.bunnings.com.au/policies/privacy-policy
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