Kmart Disputes Australian Finding in Facial Recognition Investigation
Kmart Australia is "reviewing its options" to appeal a finding by the Australian Privacy Commissioner that its "limited trial" of facial recognition technology breached the country's privacy law, a spokesperson emailed us late Thursday (see Ref:2509180023]).
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Like most other retailers, the company is "experiencing escalating incidents of thefts in stores," often accompanied by antisocial behavior or acts of violence against team members and customers, the spokesperson said.
To tackle the problem, Kmart said it ran a limited facial recognition trial with controls to protect customers' privacy, such as retaining images only if they matched those of people reasonably suspected or known to have engaged in refund fraud.
"All other images were deleted, and the data was never used for marketing or other purposes," the spokesperson said, adding that the trial stopped when the privacy commissioner's probe began in July 2022.
The spokesperson also noted that from August 2024 to March 2025 alone, refund-related customer threats jumped by 85%.