Bunnings Warehouse is introducing FRT to combat what it claims is a rising number of thefts and threatening incidents in its stores, writes chief editor Nicholas Dynon.
Hardware behemoth Bunnings Warehouse is introducing live facial recognition technology (FRT) in all of its New Zealand stores. Targeting Two Hamilton locations initially (Te Rapa and Hamilton South), the nationwide deployment aims to combat theft and protect staff from aggressive, repeat offenders.
With the Hamilton store roll-out constituting Phase 1, Phase 2 will cover the remainder of the North Island, and Phase 3 will then see South Island Bunnings customers having their facial biometrics collected once they walk past the sausage sizzle.
The move comes several months after a New Zealand Privacy Commissioner report on the Foodstuffs North Island Limited live FRT trial determined that such FRT deployments – if implemented with appropriate safeguards – may meet the requirements of the Privacy Act.
“Despite the ruling in Bunnings’ favour, the ART agreed with the Privacy Commissioner that Bunnings had failed to comply with several privacy principles.”
It also comes hot on the heels of the Australian Administrative Review Tribunal’s reversal of a 2024 ruling by the Australian Privacy Commissioner that had found Bunnings breached privacy laws by scanning hundreds of thousands of customers’ faces without their proper consent.
Bunnings in Australia had deployed facial recognition in 62 stores in New South Wales and Victoria between January 2019 and November 2021, after a two-month trial in one store in 2018.
ART ‘amber light’
News reports and commentators described the recent ART ruling as a “green light” to Bunnings and to other retailers to deploy live facial recognition.
Alex MacDonald, a former Bunnings employee and currently Director of Australian facial recognition solutions provider, Vixels, which implemented Bunnings’ facial recognition solution, stated that the decision “provides much needed clarity for other businesses facing similar challenges, confirming that facial recognition technology can be implemented responsibly, with appropriate safeguards in place.”
Scott Harris, founder of Workforce Resilience, a training provider that delivered safety and security workshops for Bunnings, posted on LinkedIn that the retailer – along with Foodstuffs North Island [in New Zealand] – “have been leading the way in FRT, and their work now paves the way for other retailers across Australia and New Zealand.”
Despite the ruling in Bunnings’ favour, the ART agreed with the Privacy Commissioner that Bunnings had failed to comply with several privacy principles, including that the retailer had not properly notified customers that their faces were being scanned, that it had not conducted a risk assessment in relation to the use of FRT, and that it had failed to put in place minimum standards or similar policy.
“We accept that Minimum Standards were subsequently developed, however that was a significant time after the implementation of the system,” stated the ART. “Considering the steps taken by Bunnings in totality, we find that Bunnings fell short of implementation of practices, procedures and systems relating to Bunnings’ functions or activities that would have ensured that they complied with the Australian Privacy Principles.”
Although the ruling had given Bunnings the green light it needed to proceed with its FRT plans, it had also provided the retailer with plenty of homework to do in order to enable any future deployment to tick the privacy legislation boxes.
Survey data used to support roll-out
Supporting its decision to implement live FRT in its New Zealand stores, Bunnings states that it completed a Privacy Impact Assessment, engaged a Māori digital sovereignty expert to ensure its approach aligns with tikanga Māori and Māori data sovereignty principles, and commissioned independent research to understand what New Zealanders think about FRT.
The research, which included focus groups, interviews, and a “nationally representative survey of 1,000 New Zealanders”, indicated that support for FRT is strongest “when people understand how FRT works and how personal and biometric information is protected.”
“… contradictions in the crime data used by FRT vendors and FRT-deploying retailers to justify the use of FRT as a proportionate measure to combat crime in their premises.”
According to Bunnings, the research found that more than nine in ten (93 percent) respondents supported FRT “if it improves safety by more than 10 percent,” and more than six in ten (64 percent) supported it when smaller improvements were considered. Fewer than one in 10 (seven percent) respondents opposed it in principle.
The results are not dissimilar to an earlier survey of 1,007 New Zealand consumers conducted on behalf of Foodstuffs in support of its FRT trial by branding and consumer insights consultancy One Picture.
That survey found that 66% of respondents said they would accept FRT even if the harm minimisation is very small, 79% would accept it even if it only achieved a 0.7% reduction in harm, 86% would accept it if it achieved a 3% reduction in harm, and 89% would accept FRT if it achieved a 10% reduction in harm.
Despite the broad consistency between the two retailers’ survey results, they fly in the face of established international data on FRT public acceptability published in several peer-reviewed survey-based academic research studies. In the US, for example, which typically has relatively higher rates of public comfort with FRT, recent studies indicate that the acceptability of crime targeted FRT in retail stores sits at between 54% and 59%.
The results also appear wildly inconsistent with a biennial privacy survey of over 1,200 New Zealanders released by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in March 2025.
In that survey, 41% of respondents stated that they were concerned or very concerned about the use of facial recognition technology in retail stores to identify individuals. 25% were neutral on the topic, 31% were either not concerned or not really concerned, and 3% were unsure. 49% of Maori respondents indicated concern over FRT in retail.
It’s a glaring inconsistency that warrants a closer look, and it echoes contradictions in the crime data used by FRT vendors and FRT-deploying retailers to justify the use of FRT as a proportionate measure to combat crime in their premises.
According to Bunnings, retail crime and serious threatening behaviour towards retail workers is increasing across New Zealand. “The scale of retail crime in New Zealand is accelerating and shows no signs of stopping,” stated Bunnings manager Melissa Haines in an article published by RNZ on 07 March.
Yet, according to recent NZ Police Victimisation Time & Place data, victimisations occuring in retail premises have fallen significantly since historic highs in January 2025.
