The next step of the ‘evolution’ begins.

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FACIAL RECOGNITION TESTED

Australia’s largest supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, have confirmed they are testing facial recognition technology in a bid to ‘tackle theft, violence, and abuse of staff’.

Woolworths has reported to have tested the technology at its New Zealand office.

A spokesperson for Woolworths told reporters the technology had been tested at its office in Auckland to “further understand the use of this technology to improve safety”.

Coles has also confirmed it undertook a “small, one-off, controlled proof-of-concept test” of facial recognition technology here at home, but say they did not use customer or team-member information or data – nor is the technology currently being used in stores.

That is a deliberately narrow characterisation, drawing a firm line between an ‘internal capability test’ and a live, customer-facing deployment – for legal purposes.

Why are they tip-toeing around their moves? Well, you may remember a recent Bunnings privacy ruling that was overturned regarding facial recognition usage in public, making it more difficult for regulators to argue the technology was unlawful in retail settings.

Face scans set to become commonplace in Australia after Bunnings ruling
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Although this occurred, the decision was far from an unrestricted green light.

The tribunal upheld findings that Bunnings had failed to provide adequate notice to customers and had not carried out the formal, structured, and documented privacy risk assessment expected when deploying such technology.

Customers need to clearly be told that facial recognition is operating, what information is collected, how long it is retained, who can access it, and how matches are verified.

As a result, the OAIC says retailers must conduct detailed assessments specific to their own circumstances rather than assuming that the Bunnings decision gives them automatic permission to deploy the technology. Coles are being careful with their words as a result.

The companies say the technology is being considered as a ‘security measure’, amid growing concern about retail crime and incidents involving threats or violence against staff.

Coles has also rejected suggestions that facial recognition would be used to monitor customers for marketing purposes, or to determine what individual shoppers pay.

The prospect of widespread use has nevertheless alarmed privacy advocates because facial recognition can transform ordinary CCTV footage into identifiable biometric information.

For Australian shoppers, the issue is therefore likely to centre on what happens if Coles or Woolworths move beyond testing – which they will indeed do in the near future.

There is currently a calculated plot underway to ‘re-imagine our shopping experience’, and there are some powerful players who are assisting to make this dream a reality.

THE ROAD HERE

For shoppers, the debate is less about whether supermarkets can use the technology and more about where the line should be drawn between protecting workers and customers – preserving the right to shop without being automatically identified.

Especially when the systems are linked to powerful offshore military-linked entities.

As we revealed last year, Coles is using surveillance and data collection technology systems developed by controversial U.S firm Palantir to ‘streamline and enhance operations’.

Inside the Surveillance Relationship Between Coles and Palantir
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This includes incorporation of external surveillance for customers, and internal monitoring for over 120,000 employees and 9,000 suppliers.

It is yet another example of how digital tools are increasingly being used in workplaces to track online activity, ‘measure productivity’, and analyse employee behaviour at scale.

Workplace surveillance is being supercharged with new AI systems
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But the greater impact is on patrons who are going about their business shopping.

We have witnessed a transformation in our supermarkets in recent years, including the introduction of ‘smart’ technologies designed to train the masses for what is coming.

This includes new ‘smart gates’ that lock potential shoplifters in the store, and digital pricetags that can be fluctuated and changed at the drop of a hat.

Coles introduces new Smart Gates at self-checkouts
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Digital Price Tags Arrive in Australian Supermarkets
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It is a surveillance party, with companies introducing a range of similar technologies designed to better monitor everything happening inside of their stores.

Woolworths Surveillance Creep Continues Across the Country
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This includes the recent addition of ‘smart trolleys’ in select locations that allow customers to sign in and check out from a digital screen attached to the cart itself.

Woolworths expands ‘smart trolley’ trial to additional states
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All of these small additions are just the building blocks to a much bigger picture – one that completely reshapes how we will imagine shopping centres in the future.

For starters, executives have already stated that their vision is to make our shops ‘checkout free’ within 10 years, moving towards a similar weight-based biometric system.

Supermarkets to be ‘Checkout Free’ by 2030
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Amazon Go already offers a shopping ‘experience’ with no lines or checkouts, allowing customers to “simply take what they want and go” with a store-based digital identity.

Known as “Just Walk Out” technology, the tool mimics some of the techniques seen in self-driving cars, including machine-learning systems that improve over time, as well as computer vision – the image-processing technology used at Facebook.

Coles recently started the next step of the evolution by testing in-store sensor technology designed to ‘flag unusual shopping behaviour’, triggering alerts for staff when ‘abnormal product removal patterns’ occur – the underpinning of future ‘contactless experiences’.

Coles trialling controversial in-aisle sensors to ‘detect suspicious activity’ in stores
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Now, the face scanning is arriving. Wait until you see it all linked together – weight sensors, biometrics, and AI-driven monitoring of behaviours.

Shops are slowly becoming a microcosm of the larger surveillance state in the world today.

In fact, it appears as they are leading the charge forward with these dystopian ‘innovations’.

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