Foodstuffs South Island will begin a three-month trial of facial recognition (FR) technology in three Christchurch stores, as part of its ongoing efforts to keep customers and team members safe.
Foodstuffs South Island General Manager of Retail, Wholesale & Property, Tim Donaldson, said the co-operative will be trialling FR as part of its commitment to providing a safe shopping and working environment.
“We’re seeing some people repeatedly target our stores with serious, threatening behaviour, even after being trespassed. This trial will help us understand if facial recognition can help our teams identify repeat offenders so we can act quickly to prevent them from causing more harm,” said Donaldson.
When someone is violent, threatening, or aggressive in a Foodstuffs South Island store, a specialist-trained team will review the incident and, after careful assessment, determine whether the offender will be added to the FR watchlist.
The FR system compares the images of everyone who enters a trial store with those of people on the FR watchlist. If the system detects a match, it sends an alert, and two trained team members manually review it. They decide whether it is a match, and if so, what response is appropriate. This may include observing the person, contacting the Police, or intervening to ask them to leave the store - if it is safe to do so.
Only images that match a person on the watchlist are stored. Images of all other people who visit the FR Stores and are not on the watchlist are not retained and are deleted immediately.
Foodstuffs South Island takes privacy extremely seriously. Before starting the trial, the co-operative engaged with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and completed a Privacy Impact Assessment. The Co-op will continue to work with privacy experts to ensure the trial complies with New Zealand’s privacy requirements.
“We recognise some people may have questions about the use of FR. That’s why we’ve published clear information on our website about how the system works and the safeguards we’ve put in place, and are happy to answer any questions about how FR will be used in our trial.”
The trial will start on Wednesday, the 29th of October and will take place at New World St Martins, PAK’nSAVE Papanui and PAK’nSAVE Moorhouse.
At the end of the three-month trial, results will be carefully reviewed before any decisions are made about future use of FR technology.
Between March and September 2024, Foodstuffs North Island successfully trialled facial recognition across 25 of its New World and PAK’nSAVE stores.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s public inquiry into the trial found it had met privacy standards. FR has continued to be used in 25 North Island supermarkets, and other retailers have followed suit.
