One of Australia’s largest retailers has been ordered by the Privacy Commissioner to not use facial recognition technology again following a three-year investigation.

Kmart began using facial recognition technology (FRT) in 2020 in 28 stores across the country except in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

It stopped using it in 2022 when the Privacy Commission began investigating the retailer for taking what the commissioner called sensitive information without consent.

In response, Kmart said its use of FRT was to crosscheck facial data of customers against a database of people who were committing refund fraud or who the retailer suspected was committing refund fraud.

In her ruling, Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind found that despite Kmart arguing that the use of the technology had no

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