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Economic Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Will NZ supermarkets start scanning your face? What shoppers need to know about Facial Recognition Technology
TIL Creatives Retailers claim this technology will reduce crime and protect staff, igniting a debate on surveillance and data rights. Supporters include Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Bunnings, Mitre 10, Michael Hill, Farmers, The Warehouse, Foodstuffs, Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. (Representative Image) Facial recognition technology (FRT) is gradually entering New Zealand's retail sector, with major retailers and telecommunications companies supporting its adoption. The shift comes after Foodstuffs' recent trial, which earned a "cautious tick" from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Major retail stores believe introducing this technology will reduce retail crime and protect staff from aggressive or repeat offenders. It has now sparked a national conversation about surveillance, ethics, and data rights vs. the stores' backing the use of FRT include Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Bunnings, Mitre 10, Michael Hill, Farmers, The Warehouse, Foodstuffs (both North and South Islands), Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. These businesses have signed a joint statement supporting the 'fair and accurate' use of the technology and pledged to develop best-practice guidelines before rolling it out more broadly across the country.'We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way. Guardrails are needed to support customers' privacy, and to guard against potential bias and discrimination.', the statement said. The systems work by capturing a photo of someone entering a store. Staff are alerted if the individual matches someone on a 'watchlist', typically for previous trespass notices or aggressive incidents. If not, the image is deleted immediately. Retailers insist this is not about tracking regular shoppers but deterring repeat offenders who pose risks to staff and customers. However, the Privacy Commissioner, Michael Webster, has clarified that this is not a 'green light' for the mass deployment of FRT. He warned that even a small misidentification rate can impact hundreds of people. For example, Foodstuffs North Island's trial estimated up to 900 false matches annually. He recommended raising the accuracy of facial matching algorithms from 90 per cent to at least 92.5 per cent and stressed the importance of local model training to reduce bias. He also called for robust privacy frameworks and community consultation. A Māori Reference Panel has voiced strong opposition. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets, saying such technology affects the wider public, not just those on watchlists. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he expects officials to consider a centralised facial recognition system. While such a database could stop offenders from shifting stores, it would need heavy regulation and tight oversight. At the time, Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said it was too early to comment on the centralised option, as the commissioner's evaluation was still being reviewed. Internationally, FRT is already in use. In Australia, Bunnings has faced legal challenges over applying facial scanning tech. In the United States, major chains like 7-Eleven, Rite Aid, and Home Depot have all tested similar systems, raising similar debates over ethics, consent, and now, FRT in New Zealand remains in the trial phase. But with big-name backing and ongoing public debate, its national rollout may be closer than many expect, depending on how regulators, technologists, and communities choose to weigh safety against privacy.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Will NZ supermarkets start scanning your face? What shoppers need to know about Facial Recognition Technology
Facial recognition technology ( FRT ) is gradually entering New Zealand's retail sector, with major retailers and telecommunications companies supporting its adoption. The shift comes after Foodstuffs ' recent trial, which earned a "cautious tick" from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner . Major retail stores believe introducing this technology will reduce retail crime and protect staff from aggressive or repeat offenders. It has now sparked a national conversation about surveillance, ethics, and data rights vs. the stores' safety. Retailers backing the use of FRT include Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Bunnings, Mitre 10, Michael Hill, Farmers, The Warehouse, Foodstuffs (both North and South Islands), Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Discover the best air conditioner unit prices in the Philippines 2024 Air Condition | Search Ads Search Now Undo These businesses have signed a joint statement supporting the 'fair and accurate' use of the technology and pledged to develop best-practice guidelines before rolling it out more broadly across the country. 'We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way. Guardrails are needed to support customers' privacy, and to guard against potential bias and discrimination.', the statement said. Live Events How will it work? The systems work by capturing a photo of someone entering a store. Staff are alerted if the individual matches someone on a 'watchlist', typically for previous trespass notices or aggressive incidents. If not, the image is deleted immediately. Retailers insist this is not about tracking regular shoppers but deterring repeat offenders who pose risks to staff and customers. When will it start? However, the Privacy Commissioner, Michael Webster, has clarified that this is not a 'green light' for the mass deployment of FRT. He warned that even a small misidentification rate can impact hundreds of people. For example, Foodstuffs North Island's trial estimated up to 900 false matches annually. He recommended raising the accuracy of facial matching algorithms from 90 per cent to at least 92.5 per cent and stressed the importance of local model training to reduce bias. He also called for robust privacy frameworks and community consultation. A Māori Reference Panel has voiced strong opposition. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets, saying such technology affects the wider public, not just those on watchlists. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he expects officials to consider a centralised facial recognition system. While such a database could stop offenders from shifting stores, it would need heavy regulation and tight oversight. At the time, Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said it was too early to comment on the centralised option, as the commissioner's evaluation was still being reviewed. Internationally, FRT is already in use. In Australia, Bunnings has faced legal challenges over applying facial scanning tech. In the United States, major chains like 7-Eleven, Rite Aid, and Home Depot have all tested similar systems, raising similar debates over ethics, consent, and surveillance. For now, FRT in New Zealand remains in the trial phase. But with big-name backing and ongoing public debate, its national rollout may be closer than many expect, depending on how regulators, technologists, and communities choose to weigh safety against privacy.
Otago Daily Times
15-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Large retailers support facial recognition technology in stores
By Phil Pennington of RNZ The heads of a dozen of the largest retailers and telcos in the country have come out in strong support of using facial recognition technology in their stores. This follows the Privacy Commissioner giving a "cautious tick" to a trial in New World and Pak'nSave supermarkets. "The undersigned major New Zealand retailers strongly support the use of fair and accurate technology to protect our workers and customers," said a statement at industry group Retail NZ's website. Without saying when they might start using it, they stated they would work now to develop "best practice". "We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way." The letter was signed by the heads of Briscoes and Rebel Sport, Bunnings and Mitre 10, Michael Hill Jewellers, Farmers and The Warehouse, the two Foodstuffs supermarket groups in the two islands as well as rival Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. Concern lingers over privacy of shoppers Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster had said his report was "not a green light for more general use of FRT" (facial recognition technology). "However, we recognise the importance of the issue for many businesses." The trial let other businesses ask themselves the right questions about whether to use FRT and in what ways to protect privacy, Webster said. There were significant caveats. "While the percentage of misidentifications may be small, rolling FRT out at scale would mean that large numbers of people would be misidentified." Foodstuffs North Island's own research suggested 900 shoppers a year could be misidentified in its stores alone. The commissioner suggested raising the algorithm accuracy from 90 percent to 92.5 percent, among other measures. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets. This was "given the vital role of supermarkets in providing access to food, the current supermarket duopoly which means there are limited alternative options for people who are barred from entry, and the concern that the whole population of Aotearoa will be subjected to surveillance in supermarkets in order to reduce instances of harmful behaviour by a small minority of customers". How does it work? Retail NZ's Carolyn Young said for someone to be on the watchlist, they had to have offended and/or been abusive and/or aggressive in store and trespassed. If someone was trespassed from a retail environment, they currently are not able to return to that store for two years. "What we know in retail is that recidivous offending is very high - between 35-50 percent (depending on the sector) of offending is done by recidivous offending. "So we know that even though someone has been trespassed, they continue to come back into store," Young said. "FRT will enable stores to identify these individuals as they enter store to ensure that the store is safe for staff and customers. "FRT does not enable customers to be monitored. It takes an image of people as they enter the store and if they are not on the watchlist, then they are deleted immediately. "FRT does not provide ongoing monitoring throughout the store, just one photo/image as someone enters." The big-store signatories said they acknowledged the commissioner's oversight, and Foodstuffs for leading the way with its trial. "The use of FRT in the right settings with the right controls will provide positive benefits and outcomes for customers, retailers and workers, while not impeding on the privacy of New Zealanders. "The vast majority of customers will be able to go about their business as usual and will in fact be safer in those stores where FRT is used," the Retail NZ statement said. Webster also stressed it would be "highly desirable" to do training of the FRT algorithms on New Zealanders' faces, by consent, to cut down the risk of bias and inaccuracy. Very limited such testing by the Department of Internal Affairs last year found the imported tech it is currently using was accurate. What happens overseas? Many multiple FRT systems are on offer that return different rates of accuracy in independent tests by the US-based benchmarking agency. In Australia, Bunnings had been in a legal fight with a watchdog that asserted its facial recognition there impinged on people's privacy. Reports of the tech being used at supermarkets in an isolated way in New Zealand date back to at least 2018. Researchers foresaw the tech spread in 2021. "Private sector use of FRT-enabled surveillance is likely to increase, particularly in the retail sector, especially as these services come 'baked-in' to vendor offerings," their landmark report for police said. That contributed to police deciding not to use FRT on live camera feeds, a constraint they say they have stuck with till now. In Britain, the tech's spread, for example in airports and shopping centres, prompted the government's biometrics ethics group in 2021 to recommend oversight by an independent ethics group including of collaborative FRT use between retail and police. Young said Britain was a long way ahead of New Zealand in terms of the implementation of FRT and had used CCTV actively in the community for many years. Here, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) would carry out the role of oversight, she said. "It may be in the future that there is a need for another regulatory body to do this work, but while we are in our infancy of implementation and the OPC has been very clear about how it is to be rolled out, we believe that the parameters for implementation are very clear." The Privacy Commissioner's report does not contain a similar recommendation. It mentioned Foodstuffs auditing how it compiled watchlists of people for the camera-software to look out for, but not that this should be independent. The signed Retail NZ statement did not mention independent overview. Australia's privacy regulator signalled in March it would be proactive in regulating biometric information. Biometrics include face, fingerprint and iris - unique identifiers of who a person is. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - it had taken on Bunnings, which was appealing - put this in a wider frame: "Our research told us that more than a quarter of Australians feel that facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks faced today, and only three percent of Australians think it's fair and reasonable for retailers to require their biometric information when accessing their services". "Thinking about what the law permits, but also what the community would expect" was critical.
Otago Daily Times
15-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Facial recognition technology supported by big name retailers
By Phil Pennington of RNZ The heads of a dozen of the largest retailers and telcos in the country have come out in strong support of using facial recognition technology in their stores. This follows the Privacy Commissioner giving a "cautious tick" to a trial in New World and Pak'nSave supermarkets. "The undersigned major New Zealand retailers strongly support the use of fair and accurate technology to protect our workers and customers," said a statement at industry group Retail NZ's website. Without saying when they might start using it, they stated they would work now to develop "best practice". "We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way." The letter was signed by the heads of Briscoes and Rebel Sport, Bunnings and Mitre 10, Michael Hill Jewellers, Farmers and The Warehouse, the two Foodstuffs supermarket groups in the two islands as well as rival Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. Concern lingers over privacy of shoppers Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster had said his report was "not a green light for more general use of FRT" (facial recognition technology). "However, we recognise the importance of the issue for many businesses." The trial let other businesses ask themselves the right questions about whether to use FRT and in what ways to protect privacy, Webster said. There were significant caveats. "While the percentage of misidentifications may be small, rolling FRT out at scale would mean that large numbers of people would be misidentified." Foodstuffs North Island's own research suggested 900 shoppers a year could be misidentified in its stores alone. The commissioner suggested raising the algorithm accuracy from 90 percent to 92.5 percent, among other measures. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets. This was "given the vital role of supermarkets in providing access to food, the current supermarket duopoly which means there are limited alternative options for people who are barred from entry, and the concern that the whole population of Aotearoa will be subjected to surveillance in supermarkets in order to reduce instances of harmful behaviour by a small minority of customers". How does it work? Retail NZ's Carolyn Young said for someone to be on the watchlist, they had to have offended and/or been abusive and/or aggressive in store and trespassed. If someone was trespassed from a retail environment, they currently are not able to return to that store for two years. "What we know in retail is that recidivous offending is very high - between 35-50 percent (depending on the sector) of offending is done by recidivous offending. "So we know that even though someone has been trespassed, they continue to come back into store," Young said. "FRT will enable stores to identify these individuals as they enter store to ensure that the store is safe for staff and customers. "FRT does not enable customers to be monitored. It takes an image of people as they enter the store and if they are not on the watchlist, then they are deleted immediately. "FRT does not provide ongoing monitoring throughout the store, just one photo/image as someone enters." The big-store signatories said they acknowledged the commissioner's oversight, and Foodstuffs for leading the way with its trial. "The use of FRT in the right settings with the right controls will provide positive benefits and outcomes for customers, retailers and workers, while not impeding on the privacy of New Zealanders. "The vast majority of customers will be able to go about their business as usual and will in fact be safer in those stores where FRT is used," the Retail NZ statement said. Webster also stressed it would be "highly desirable" to do training of the FRT algorithms on New Zealanders' faces, by consent, to cut down the risk of bias and inaccuracy. Very limited such testing by the Department of Internal Affairs last year found the imported tech it is currently using was accurate. What happens overseas? Many multiple FRT systems are on offer that return different rates of accuracy in independent tests by the US-based benchmarking agency. In Australia, Bunnings had been in a legal fight with a watchdog that asserted its facial recognition there impinged on people's privacy. Reports of the tech being used at supermarkets in an isolated way in New Zealand date back to at least 2018. Researchers foresaw the tech spread in 2021. "Private sector use of FRT-enabled surveillance is likely to increase, particularly in the retail sector, especially as these services come 'baked-in' to vendor offerings," their landmark report for police said. That contributed to police deciding not to use FRT on live camera feeds, a constraint they say they have stuck with till now. In Britain, the tech's spread, for example in airports and shopping centres, prompted the government's biometrics ethics group in 2021 to recommend oversight by an independent ethics group including of collaborative FRT use between retail and police. Young said Britain was a long way ahead of New Zealand in terms of the implementation of FRT and had used CCTV actively in the community for many years. Here, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) would carry out the role of oversight, she said. "It may be in the future that there is a need for another regulatory body to do this work, but while we are in our infancy of implementation and the OPC has been very clear about how it is to be rolled out, we believe that the parameters for implementation are very clear." The Privacy Commissioner's report does not contain a similar recommendation. It mentioned Foodstuffs auditing how it compiled watchlists of people for the camera-software to look out for, but not that this should be independent. The signed Retail NZ statement did not mention independent overview. Australia's privacy regulator signalled in March it would be proactive in regulating biometric information. Biometrics include face, fingerprint and iris - unique identifiers of who a person is. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - it had taken on Bunnings, which was appealing - put this in a wider frame: "Our research told us that more than a quarter of Australians feel that facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks faced today, and only three percent of Australians think it's fair and reasonable for retailers to require their biometric information when accessing their services". "Thinking about what the law permits, but also what the community would expect" was critical.
Scoop
03-06-2025
- Scoop
Supermarket Trial Of FRT: Inquiry Results Announced
Press Release – Office of the Privacy Commissioner 'FRT systems have potential safety benefits, but they do raise significant privacy concerns, including the unnecessary or unfair collection of peoples information, misidentification, technical bias which can reinforce existing inequities and human … Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster has found that the live facial recognition technology model trialled by Foodstuffs North Island is compliant with the Privacy Act. However, his Inquiry report released today, shows that any business considering or using FRT needs to make sure it sets things up right to stay within the law. 'While the use of FRT during the trial was effective at reducing harmful behaviour (especially reducing serious violent incidents) it has also shown that there are many things that need to be taken into account. 'FRT systems have potential safety benefits, but they do raise significant privacy concerns, including the unnecessary or unfair collection of people's information, misidentification, technical bias which can reinforce existing inequities and human bias, or the ability to be used for surveillance'. 'These issues become particularly critical when people need to access essential services such as supermarkets. FRT will only be acceptable if the use is necessary and the privacy risks are successfully managed'. The purpose of the Privacy Commissioner's Inquiry into Foodstuffs North Island's trial use of live FRT was to understand its privacy impacts, its compliance with the Privacy Act, and to evaluate if it was an effective tool in reducing serious retail crime compared with other less privacy intrusive options. The Inquiry found while the level of privacy intrusion was high because every visitor's face is collected, the privacy safeguards used in the trial reduced it to an acceptable level. 'Foodstuffs North Island designed the privacy safeguards used in the trial with feedback from my Office. This has provided some useful lessons for other businesses which may be considering using FRT.' The main privacy safeguards in place during the trial were: – Images that did not result in a positive match were deleted immediately, as recommended by OPC – this meant there was very little privacy impact on most people who entered the trial stores – The system was set up to only identify people who had engaged in seriously harmful behaviour, particularly violent offending – Staff were not permitted to add images of children or young people under 18, or people thought to be vulnerable, to the watchlist – There was no sharing of watchlist information between stores – During the trial, the operational threshold that triggered an FRT alert was raised from 90% to 92.5% likelihood of the images matching, reducing the chances that people would be misidentified while managing down the 'computer says yes' risk – Match alerts were verified by two trained staff, ensuring that human decision making was a key part of the process – Access to the FRT system and information was restricted to trained authorised staff only – Images collected were not permitted to be used for training data purposes – Systems were reviewed and improved during the trial where misidentifications or errors occurred. 'There is still some work to do to increase the safety and effectiveness of FRT software use in the New Zealand context, as FRT technology has been developed overseas and has not been trained on the New Zealand population. 'As a result, we can't be completely confident it has fully addressed technical bias issues, including the potential negative impact on Māori and Pacific people. This means the technology must only be used with the right processes in place, including human checks that an alert is accurate before acting on it.' 'Some improvements will also need to be made by FSNI before the use of FRT is made permanent or expanded to more stores. These focus on ensuring the documented processes and system settings are updated to match what happens in practice, including ongoing review of the use of FRT to make sure its use is justified as an effective tool for reducing serious harm offending. 'I also expect that Foodstuffs North Island will put in place monitoring and review to allow it to evaluate the impact of skin tone on identification accuracy and store response, and to provide confidence to the regulator and customers that key privacy safeguards remain in place. 'The trial findings will help other businesses to ask the right questions about whether FRT is necessary and appropriate for them and to understand what they would need to do to set FRT up and run it in a privacy protective way.' The report sets out my expectations for the use of FRT across nine key areas, says the Privacy Commissioner. The FRT trial started on 8 February and ended on 7 September 2024 and ran in 25 supermarkets. During the trial, 225,972,004 faces were scanned (includes multiple scans of the same person), with 99.999% of these deleted within one minute, and there were 1742 alerts of which 1208 were confirmed matches. OPC is currently developing a Biometric Processing Privacy Code, which applies to biometric information, including a photo of someone's face used in a Facial Recognition System. The new Code is expected to be published in mid-2025. The Biometrics Code is designed to provide guardrails for the safe use of biometrics generally, including FRT, in New Zealand.
