An investigation has been launched by the office of the Australian Information Commissioner into retailers using facial recognition technology.

The probe will focus on what retailers do with the personal information they collect, and whether it breaches privacy laws.

It comes after consumer advocacy group CHOICE revealed Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys were “capturing the biometric data of their customers”.

CHOICE revealed many Australians – 76 per cent – didn’t know retailers were doing it.

Bunnings and Kmart are still using the technology.

Renowned cyber security expert from the University of Melbourne, Suelette Dreyfus, agreed the technology was concerning.

“There are a number of things they could be looking at when they are doing the scanning, one is facial recognition it’s no just CCTV recording someone when they are going to pinch something off the shelf,” she told Neil Breen.

“There’s other things such as sentiment analysis these are actually being used in shopping malls that these retailers are at, you walk past an advertising panel that’s a digital display there’s a camera in it … a computer sits behind this that analyses your face.”

She says it’s not clear what it’s used for.

Press PLAY below to hear her explain more and the ethical questions around it

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