Three major Australian retailers, Kmart, Bunnings, and The Good Guys, have been found using facial recognition technology on their customers.
Consumer group Choice asked 25 leading retailers in Australia whether they were capturing the biometric information of their customers and found the three national brands—who run hundreds of stores across the country—were doing so.
Edward Santow, professor at the University of Technology Sydney and a former human rights commissioner, said the widespread use of facial recognition technology was a concern for society.
“Even if that technology was perfectly accurate—and it’s not—but even if it were, it also takes us into the realm of mass surveillance,” he told Choice. “I think there will be great concern in the Australian community about walking down that path.”…