Kia ora koutou,

Facial recognition is the "topic du jour" in New Zealand right now, with major supermarket chain Foodstuffs North Island launching a facial recognition technology trial in early February.

Foodstuffs said a 52% increase in retail crime and harmful behaviors, with 4,719 incidents reported across stores in the last quarter of 2023, prompted use of the technology. Foodstuffs hopes implementing facial recognition will reduce incidents while keeping staff and customers safe.

Under the trial, 25 owner-operated stores will test the effectiveness of facial recognition technology. Foodstuffs said all images will be instantly deleted unless an individual "committed a crime, has been aggressive, violent or threatening towards our team members or customers, or has actively assisted in such harmful behaviour." Matches made by the technology will be reviewed by a human. 

This is a trial, rather than a roll-out, since Foodstuffs appropriately engaged early with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner who asked for evidence that facial recognition technology is an effective and justified way to reduce crime in light of significant privacy impacts and risks, including accuracy and bias and proportionality.

Foodstuffs North Island General Counsel Julian Benefield said, "If you're an honest customer coming in, who is not a previous offender, that (image) will be immediately deleted, so those honest customers have nothing to be concerned about. It will only be a match if it is a previous offender." Global evaluations of facial recognition technologies show false matches are more likely to happen for people of color. The OPC was particularly concerned about the impact facial recognition technology would have on Māori, Pasifika, Indian and Asian customers, given the system was not trained on New Zealand's population. So, if you are an "honest customer" of color, then Foodstuff's comments may not provide much reassurance.

While Foodstuffs certainly has a legitimate interest in reducing retail crime and protecting its staff from harm, this must be proportional to the general intrusiveness of facial recognition technology. Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster put it perfectly when he said, "New Zealanders deserve to shop for their milk and bread without having their faces scanned unless it's really justified. 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."

Despite varying views on the merits or risks of facial recognition technology, Foodstuffs approach should be applauded. The supermarket chain willingly engaged with the OPC and has been open and transparent with the public — including taking the commendable step of making its privacy impact assessment on the use of facial recognition technology publicly available. The company has also put real effort into identifying and assessing the risks and committed to producing an independent report on its trial.

The trial comes at an interesting time for the OPC, which is already working on issuing a biometrics code of practice that would regulate the use of biometrics in New Zealand, including facial recognition. There is no doubt the insights gathered during this trial — on the technology's implementation, effectiveness, public reaction and any harms — will usefully feed into the regulatory approach the OPC takes. The insights will also be highly valuable for other organizations considering using facial recognition technology in the future.

Biometrics will certainly be a topic of discussion at the IAPP ANZ Summit 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. The call for proposals is open until 5 May, and we're particularly interested in content on artificial intelligence governance, biometrics, children's privacy, indigenous privacy perspectives and, of course, local regulatory developments. You never know, we might be lucky enough to hear from Foodstuffs about the outcomes of their facial recognition trial.

Ngā mihi.