NSW announces facial recognition technology for pokies
New South Wales has announced plans to deploy facial recognition technology in poker machine venues. The system appears aimed at identifying problem gamblers or enforcing exclusion schemes at pokies.
Why this matters: Gambling venues are not airports or border crossings. Rolling out facial recognition in pubs and clubs means scanning the faces of ordinary people every time they walk in for a drink or a flutter. Exclusion schemes sound reasonable in principle, but biometric surveillance to enforce them is a significant step. Once the cameras are in, their use tends to expand. The question is whether anyone who never asked to be in a facial recognition database gets a real say about being added to one.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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