Australian retailer Kmart broke privacy laws in its collection of customers' data through facial recognition, the Privacy Commissioner has found.

Australia's Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind found the company had collected personal and sensitive information from customers over a period of two years under the guise of trying to identify people committing refund fraud.

The technology was used at 28 of its stores around the country.

However, Kind found Kmart did not adequately inform shoppers of the technology being used or seek consent to use facial recognition technology to collect their personal information, which is in breach of the Privacy Act.

Kmart had argued that it was not required to obtain consent because of an exemption in the Privacy Act that applies when organisations rea

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