Major Australian retailers — including Wesfarmers-owned chains such as Officeworks, Bunnings and Kmart, as well as The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi — are watching closely as UK supermarkets and police expand the use of live facial recognition technology to tackle rising retail crime.

This comes as Australian stores grapple with escalating shoplifting and violence, yet remain restricted in the tools they can use because of what’s been described as “ridiculous” rulings by the OAIC who have been described as protecting criminals from being identified after they have stolen goods from Australian stores.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recently ruled that facial recognition trials conducted by Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys breached Australian privacy laws.

The OAIC

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