Retail facial recognition prospects boosted by Facewatch feature, NZ privacy guidance

Retailers are navigating twin concerns around incidents of theft and assaults on staff and data privacy regulations as they consider adopting facial recognition to identify confirmed shoplifters. The days of posting a known criminal’s photo behind the counter are ending in the UK, due to privacy considerations, so adopting biometric technology has an obvious appeal, particularly if it can help deter confrontations. In New Zealand, guidance from the regulator was the hold-up, and a wave of retail facial recognition deployments is underway.

‘Ring bell to be escorted out’

How anyone responds to the sound of a ringing bell will depend on their conditioning, as shown by famous physiologist Ivan Pavlov. If Facewatch can closely enough associate the audible signal the company provides following an alert to a retail worker that a shopper’s face biometrics have been matched to a previous shoplifter, it could deter a theft attempt.

The audio signal is sounded by the smartphone or tablet the retailer has set up to receive alerts, and is set to “loud” by default, a company spokesperson told The Telegraph.

The volume of alerts received by UK retailers has been climbing, surpassing 10,000 a week for the first time during July, a 135 percent increase from July 2024.

The British Retail Consortium says 2,000 incidents of abuse or violence against UK retail staff are now recorded on average each day. And police had received more than 530,000 shoplifting complaints in the previous year, as of March figures.

Some retailers have responded with the analogue approach of posting photos of known shoplifters, which has been ruled a violation of the UK’s data protection law.

As an alternative declared compliant by the ICO, facial recognition cameras from Facewatch have already been deployed to Budgens, Spar, Southern Co-op, Sports Direct, B&M, Home Bargains and Flannels stores, with Iceland currently running a trial.

The biometric data is only shared, the company says, between stores in the event of a repeat offender being identified as targeting multiple shops, or with a history of weapons use or violence.

NZ search identifies barrier to retail biometrics adoption

New Zealand-based facial recognition provider Auror has met with Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith as the government considers ways to remove barriers to the use of facial recognition to prevent theft in shops and supermarkets.

An email between the company and the Minister shows a request for a meeting last year, RNZ reports. The meeting was held in December, but contrary to an email released under the country’s Official Information Act, Auror was not responding to a request to provide advice “on how to strengthen legislation to provide more certainty for tech providers.”

The company says its email misrepresented the interaction. The walk-back recalls the controversy that erupted around Facewatch after a closed-door meeting between the company and UK Home Office officials was revealed.

Retail crime has been spiking in New Zealand, as in the UK and elsewhere, with reports to police through Auror’s platform attributed to retail crime in 65 percent of cases in 2022, up from 17 percent in 2017 and a further dramatic increase since then.

Goldsmith ordered a review of the Privacy Act last September, just as early trial results for retail facial recognition began to arrive.

A briefing seen by RNZ suggested officials were concerned the Privacy Act was preventing retailers from adopting the biometric technology. But retailers responded that they need more guidance from the Privacy Commissioner. A ministerial advisory group was established around this time to develop a policy framework for ethical facial recognition use.

The country’s privacy commissioner approved retail facial recognition with a “cautious tick” this June, shortly before the publication of New Zealand’s Biometric Processing Privacy Code.

Immediately after the approval by New Zealand’s privacy commissioner, around a dozen large retailers including Bunnings, Farmers and Woolworths, and a pair of telecom providers announced their intention to explore using retail facial recognition.

Article Topics

Auror  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  Facewatch  |  facial recognition  |  New Zealand  |  retail biometrics  |  video surveillance