NZ Privacy commissioner finds the use of facial recognition in retail is compliant with the Privacy Act
The final findings of the Food Stuff North Island (FSNI) trial of the use of facial recognition in 25 stores over 6 months to provide real time alerts if repeat offenders return to a store has been released. The trial was completed last year and the Office of the NZ Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has released their report finding that it was compliant with the NZ Privacy Act and that it had safety benefits in keeping store staff safe.
The announcement was in the NZ media. Privacy commissioner inquiry finds supermarket facial recognition tech's use is justified | RNZ News
The commissioner’s detailed report contains many recommendations relating to how FSNI ran the trial and various improvements that were introduced during the trial. While generally not mentioned directly, the report talks about the Australian developer (Vix Vizion) and our Imagus product on page 48. The use of the Imagus privacy and data retention settings assisted FSNI in achieving privacy outcomes.
The report covers many subjects including how FSNI chose Imagus by referencing the NIST FRT benchmarking reports for the Wild video scenarios for which Imagus was ranked 2nd in the world for speed and accuracy.
Link to NZ privacy commissioners report. We look forward to more NZ retailers using Vix Vizion’s Imagus software to help keep staff safe.