Alarm raised over ‘privacy dilemma’ of facial recognition technology at Coles and Woolworths
Australia's two largest supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, are facing scrutiny over their use of facial recognition technology in stores, with privacy advocates expressing concern about how the systems are deployed and what happens to shoppers' biometric data.
Why this matters: Most people buying groceries do not expect their face to be scanned and processed. That is the basic issue here. Supermarkets are not optional — people have to shop somewhere. When a near-mandatory service collects biometric data, you do not really have a free choice about whether to hand it over. Faces are not passwords. You cannot change them if something goes wrong. The question is not whether retailers can use this technology. It is whether shoppers know it is happening and what is done with their data afterward.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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