Retail workers and shoppers are pitted against each other in a feud over surveillance technology.

Kmart breached privacy laws by collecting personal and sensitive information through a facial-recognition technology system designed to tackle refund fraud between 2020 and 2022.

Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind knocked back Kmart's argument that it did not need to obtain customer consent due to a legal loophole allowing it to collect the information to tackle unlawful activity.

Macquarie University technology and intellectual property law expert Rita Matulionyte said the Kmart decision, along with a similar finding against Bunnings in 2024, had set a "very clear boundary" about face-scanning.

Without obtaining customer consent, retailers needed a "very serious" reason to use facial-recogni

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