Coles and Woolworths test facial recognition to address store crime – report
Australian supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths are reportedly testing facial recognition technology in their stores as a measure to combat retail crime. The trials place both chains among a growing number of retailers experimenting with biometric surveillance in consumer spaces.
Why this matters: Every shopper who walks into one of these stores could have their face scanned and matched against a database, without signing up for anything or being told it is happening. That is a significant shift. Retail crime is a real problem, but facial recognition at the checkout is not a targeted tool — it processes everyone to catch a few. Australia has relatively weak biometric privacy rules compared to some other countries. If these trials become standard practice, the question is not just whether the technology works. It is who controls the database, how long your face is kept, and whether you ever get a say.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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