A trolley full of Foodstuffs groceries.
Photo: Suppled / Foodstuffs
Shopkeepers across the country are itching to use facial recognition technology and are keeping a close eye on a supermarket trial of the system starting today, Retail NZ says.
Up to 25 Pak’n’Save and New World supermarkets will be using the technology to try and combat rising thefts and violence against staff.
But the Privacy Commissioner fears it is not a proven tool to reduce harm in stores and worries about the privacy implications, as well as its poor performance internationally on people of colour.
In 2022, some individual Foodstuffs franchisees were found to have already started using the the technology in some stores, but turned it off in the lead-up to this trial.
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said the sector was watching the trial with keen interest.
“First things first, let’s see how the trial goes,” she said.
“I know that there’s a lot of retailers waiting to see the outcomes because they are … keen to put something in place as well.”
Move not justified, Māori will be falsely accused – advocates
Lawyer Michael Bott said the rollout was overreach and was not justifiable.
He did not trust the supermarket to protect peoples’ privacy and said people should be incredibly worried.
“Here we are … embarking on an extension … of the sort of snooping and biometric data gathering that we associate with countries like China.”
He said people had very few legal protections against the use of the technology, and the government needed to change that.
“This sort of technology is here and it must be ringfenced before it goes everywhere.
“As [singer-songwriter] Joni Mitchell said: ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’.”
Māori data ethicist Dr Karaitiana Taiuru said he was “disturbed” by the trial.
He said there was overseas evidence the technology struggled to accurately identify people of colour, and Māori and Pacific people here would be falsely accused at a higher rate.
“It’s not going to be ‘if’, it will be ‘when’ the system mistakenly identifies an innocent person and then the human staff don’t pick up the differences.
“Then we are going to some very distressing situations.”
Measures taken to protect privacy
Foodstuffs consulted with the Privacy Commissioner on the plan, and an independent evaluator has been appointed.
All images of customers will be instantly deleted unless they have committed a crime, or been aggressive, violent or threatening towards workers or customers.
Foodstuffs said the data was not shared by the individual stores with other Foodstuffs supermarkets, or with third parties unless required by law.
Offenders’ images will be held for up to two years, and people who help offenders will be held for up to three months.
Images of people under 18 will not be put into the system’s record of offenders.
Foodstuffs said two specially trained staff would review the images before any action was taken.
Taiuru said international research also showed those who evaluated images of possible offenders tend to believe the computer over their own judgement.
Foodstuffs said in the situation where a person believed they had been falsely identified they should email [email protected].
Foodstuffs said there had been a large increase in thefts and violence against staff.
It said repeat offenders were responsible for about a third of all incidents and the technology would be used to target them.
Foodstuffs North Island’s general counsel Julian Benefield said the company had consulted with the Privacy Commissioner and made some changes accordingly.
It had appointed an independent evaluator and staff who reviewed the footage would be given special training.
RNZ has asked Foodstuffs what sort of training will be given, and by whom.
It has also asked which specific stores are taking part.
Foodstuffs said all images taken would be instantly deleted unless a person had committed a crime, been aggressive, violent or threatening towards workers or customers or had actively assisted in such behaviour.
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he was worried about what the software meant for Māori, Pasifika, Indian and Asian shoppers, since the software was not trained on the New Zealand population.
He said he would keep a close eye on the trial, which will run for six months.
The trial will run for six months.
Meanwhile, number plate cameras are also already being used by retailers to spot shoplifters, and by police.
