November 19th 2024.
Bunnings, a popular hardware store, has recently come under scrutiny for its use of facial recognition technology in their stores. In response, the retailer has released CCTV footage of violent incidents involving customers in their stores. They claim that this technology is necessary to protect their staff from serious crimes and violent interactions, which are often perpetrated by a small number of repeat offenders.
The released footage shows customers threatening and physically attacking Bunnings staff with weapons. These incidents are just a few examples of similar occurrences that have taken place across all 63 stores in Australia and New Zealand. As a result of these findings, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) publicly reprimanded Bunnings for breaching the privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of customers.
According to the OAIC, Bunnings had been using facial recognition CCTV to capture the faces of shoppers who entered their stores over a three-year period without their consent. This technology was being used as a trial in stores in New South Wales and Victoria. Bunnings claims that the majority of people captured were processed and deleted in just 0.00417 seconds.
However, the Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind stated that Bunnings had breached The Privacy Act by collecting personal information from customers without their consent. This occurred between November 2018 and November 2021. Bunnings would compare the facial images against a database of past customers who were identified as a risk due to their criminal or violent behavior.
Kind acknowledged that Bunnings' use of facial recognition technology may have been an efficient and cost-effective option to address unlawful activity, but that does not justify its use. She stated that Bunnings chose the most intrusive option and interfered with the privacy of all customers who entered their stores during that time, not just high-risk individuals. The retailer also did not provide enough transparency to customers about their use of this technology.
The OAIC's ruling found that Bunnings did not take reasonable steps to comply with the Privacy Act and ordered them to stop using facial recognition technology. They were also instructed to destroy all sensitive information collected by the technology after one year and publish a statement acknowledging their findings. Bunnings has been cooperative throughout the investigation and had already paused the use of facial recognition software during this time.
In a statement, managing director Mike Schneider expressed disappointment with the Commissioner's decision and stated that they would seek a review. He argued that the use of facial recognition technology appropriately balanced their privacy obligations with the need to protect their team, customers, and suppliers from violent and organized crime. He also emphasized that everyone deserves to feel safe at work and should not have to face abuse, threats, or violence.
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