determined customers would likely not have been aware<\/a> their identity was being monitored.<\/p>\nAt the time, Bunnings told investigators that when a match was not made between a person’s face and an “enrolled individual”, the customer’s data was collected and automatically deleted within an average of 4.17 milliseconds.<\/p>\n
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Mr Schneider also said in 2024 that about 70 per cent of incidents in Bunnings stores were caused by repeat offenders, which justified the use of the AI technology.<\/p>\n
The practice came to the attention of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) when consumer advocacy group Choice revealed in 2022 that Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys were using facial recognition technology.<\/p>\n
All three stores halted the practice in the wake of Choice’s report.<\/p>\n
“We have found that during the relevant period, Bunnings was entitled to use [facial recognition technology] for the limited purpose of combating very significant retail crime and protecting their staff and customers from violence, abuse and intimidation within its stores,” the tribunal decision said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“Important factors in our decision included, first, the extent of retail crime being faced by Bunnings staff and customers and, second, the technological features of the [facial recognition technology] system, which minimised the intrusion on privacy by permanently deleting collected sensitive information and by limiting its susceptibility to cyber-attack.<\/p>\n
“The advanced technology in the [facial recognition technology] system limited the impact on privacy so as not to be disproportionate when considered against the benefits of providing a safer environment for staff and customers in Bunnings stores.”<\/p>\n
The OAIC said the tribunal’s ruling showed Bunnings had not done enough to properly manage customers’ personal information, including individuals not listed as an “enrolled individual”, or alert them that they were being monitored.<\/p>\n
“[The] decision confirms the Privacy Act contains strong protections for individual privacy that are applicable in the context of emerging technologies,” an OAIC statement said.<\/p>\n
“We particularly welcome that the decision reaffirmed a range of key interpretive positions taken by the OAIC, including that even momentary collection of personal information by advanced digital tools constitutes a collection under the Privacy Act.”<\/p>\n
“The Australian community continues to care deeply about their privacy, and is increasingly worried about the challenges in protecting their personal information.”<\/p>\n
‘Common sense has prevailed’: Retail expert weighs in<\/p>\n
Gary Mortimer, a professor of retail and consumer behaviour at the Queensland University of Technology, said he supported the administrative tribunal’s ruling.<\/p>\n
“It’s incumbent on retailers to not just keep their workers safe, but also other customers safe, and also protect their inventory from loss and theft,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They should be looking at alternative ways to do that and using high-tech, innovative technology, computer vision [and] AI systems is the way of the future.”<\/p>\n
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Professor Mortimer also said he expected other major Australian retailers to follow Bunnings’ lead in implementing facial recognition technology in their stores to increase safety and quickly identify potential criminal risks.<\/p>\n
“This type of technology will become commonplace,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It also has broader impacts outside of just retail. I think about government workers in service positions that encounter aggressive behaviour all the time. I think about a tram, train and bus drivers that encounter abuse.”<\/p>\n
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The tribunal’s ruling could lead to other major retailers also using facial recognition technology says Gary Mortimer. (Four Corners: Nick Wiggins)<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence also provides retailers with a level of convenience in reducing potential crime, Mr Mortimer said.<\/p>\n
“A human doesn’t have to sit there looking, waiting for something to take place,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The AI system will identify if someone is loitering near a toilet area, the AI system will identify if somebody placed something inside their pocket or concealed a product.<\/p>\n
“It’s reasonable that clearer signage needs to be put in place \u2014 and that’s maybe something that may have been overlooked in [Bunnings’] initial implementation of this technology.<\/p>\n
“After a certain period of time, images will be deleted; images won’t be reviewed by a human. I just think there needs to be better clarity and communication around the technology.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian hardware giant Bunnings has won its fight to monitor its customers with artificial intelligence facial recognition technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,52297,6147,111,139,69,6903,644,152621,6492,6302,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-268700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-bunnings","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-privacy","17":"tag-retail","18":"tag-retail-safety","19":"tag-retailers","20":"tag-safety","21":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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