Australians support facial recognition for govt use but not in shops and offices: survey

Despite facial biometrics finding its use in Australia’s retail spaces, stadiums, casinos and the country’s digital identity program, almost three-quarters of Australians say they know little about the technology, according to a new survey published by researchers at Monash University and the Australian National University.

The survey, titled “Australian public attitudes to facial recognition technology,” found that support for facial recognition is a mixed bag. In general, 43.5 percent of respondents stated that they support the overall use of the technology while 30.8 percent say they are somewhat or strongly opposed to it.

“There is a sizeable group in the middle who remain undecided, reflecting the relatively low knowledge about the technology in the community,” the research notes.

Public support was highest (80.2 percent) for its use by emergency workers in identifying victims of disasters or war, followed by police use to catch criminal suspects (75.2 percent). Police and healthcare sectors scored high in public trust. In comparison, retail outlets and tech companies like Google and Facebook scored the lowest levels of trust, 19 and 17 percent respectively. Opposition was strongest for deploying facial recognition to monitor people in shops and workplaces.

The majority of respondents (57 percent) support the use of facial recognition for accessing government services which could give a boost to the upcoming digital ID scheme. The introduction of facial biometrics into the scheme, however, would have to convince almost one-fifth (18 percent) of respondents opposed to this type of use.

Age verification for online gambling and pornography also received high endorsement, from 61 percent and 51 percent of respondents respectively.

The public opinion survey was conducted with 2,006 respondents between April and May 2024. Overall, there is a strong sense that facial recognition technology should not be used for commercial benefit, says the study’s chief researcher Mark Andrejevic, a professor at Monash University.

“People need a better understanding of how, why and where facial recognition systems operate, how their personal data will be processed, used and stored, what kinds of risks they might confront from participating, and what mechanisms hold the technology accountable,” Andrejevic says.

One of the crucial points for survey respondents was notification and consent with 90 percent of Australians saying they wanted to know when and where the technology was being used and to have the option to consent to its use.

One positive statistic is that the majority of people (58.7 percent) perceive facial recognition as accurate with only 3.9 percent saying the technology is inaccurate or very inaccurate.

Article Topics

Australia  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  facial recognition