Privacy watchdog keeping close eye on facial recognition trial

One of the country’s largest grocery retailers will kick off a trial of facial recognition technology today, but the Privacy Commissioner will be keeping a “close eye” on it, unconvinced that the technology is an effective way to reduce harmful behaviour in supermarkets.

Foodstuffs North Island, a cooperative that runs the New World and PAK‘nSAVE, Gilmours and Four Square stores, and has applied to the Commerce Commission to merge with the cooperative that runs South Island stores, will start a six month trial of facial recognition technology (FRT) in 25 stores and use the data to determine whether to roll out the technology more widely.

Credit: Unsplash/Houcine Ncib

Foodstuffs North Island revealed in November 2022 that it was starting a FRT trial after “serious incidents” in stores had risen 246% since 2020, and “aggressive, violent and threatening behaviour” had jumped 31% on the previous year. The retailer wasn’t the only one frustrated at a wave of theft, burglary, robbery, assault and other aggressive behaviour in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

“Our data shows repeat offenders are responsible for a high proportion of serious offending in our stores with nearly 2,500 out of around 9,700 offenders likely to be repeat offenders this year,” Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quinn said back in 2022. 

But the trial took longer to get going and while Foodstuffs said at the time it was consulting with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on the “appropriate use of the tech and our trial”, its clear that the Commissioner still has reservations about how appropriate use of FRT in stores is.

"New Zealanders deserve to shop for their milk and bread without having their faces scanned unless it’s really justified," says Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster.

"We wouldn’t accept being fingerprinted and checked at the door before shopping for groceries - that sounds ludicrous - but FRT is a similar biometric process that is faster, machine-run, happens in a nanosecond, and creates a template to compare your face to, now and in the future,” he adds.

The Commissioner expressed scepticism that FRT would actually be effective in significantly reducing serious incidents in stores, particularly incidents of violence, and suggested Foodstuffs needed to “find hard data that it works and is necessary".

While New Zealanders use biometrics as part of the RealMe verification system, when they pass through passport Smartgates, and even to unlock their digital devices, facial recognition use in retail stores wouldn’t obtain specific opt-in permission from shoppers.

What Foodstuffs North Island is intending to do

According to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, who has offered feedback on the trial design, Foodstuffs North Island plans to use FRT to make a “biometric template of the face of everyone as they enter their supermarkets to see whether they match a ‘watchlist’ of people who the supermarket has identified as engaging in repeat harmful behaviours.”

The types of harmful behaviours that would see a store visitor appear on a watchlist include  

“shoplifting, verbally or physically assaulting staff or customers, breach of trespass, robbery or burglary.”

While Unmatched people’s images will be promptly deleted (following I’m feedback from OPC), matched people would face action, such as security staff monitoring them as they shop or removing them from the store, banning them from the premises, or even calling the Police.

The big potential problem the Privacy Commissioner has flagged is the very real potential for 

cases of mistaken identity and bias in the system - a problem that has reared its head repeatedly with use of FRT overseas, particularly when it comes to people of colour.

"I am particularly worried about what this means for Māori, Pasifika, Indian, and Asian shoppers especially as the software is not trained on New Zealand’s population, Webster says.

"I don’t want to see people incorrectly banned from their local supermarket and falsely accused."

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner made numerous changes to the trial “that aim to mitigate both privacy risk and give better insights into customer impacts and perspectives”. While the Commissioner has given Foodstuffs North Island a lot of feedback on its trail, it isn’t endorsing the use of FRT and will run an inquiry as the trial progresses. 

The trail in itself represents the first large scale trial of facial recognition technology in a retail setting so could offer important insights into the benefits and potential pitfalls of its use.