Privacy laws may be tested after tribunal allows Bunnings facial recognition

A tribunal overruled the privacy commissioner and allowed Bunnings to use facial recognition to monitor customers, renewing debate about Australia's decades-old privacy laws and proposed reforms.

A recent administrative tribunal decision overturned the privacy commissioner's finding and allowed Bunnings to use facial recognition to monitor customers in stores. The ruling has prompted discussion about how prepared Australia's privacy framework is for new biometric and AI tools. The article notes that privacy law in Australia has not had a major update in about 40 years and that there have been some recent, limited reforms led by the former attorney general. It also places the decision in a wider context of international use of identification technology and the government's light-touch National AI Plan. Key developments: - The tribunal overruled the privacy commissioner's earlier finding and permitted Bunnings to deploy facial recognition for customer monitoring. - The privacy commissioner had previously found the use of this high-impact technology to be unlawful. - The former attorney general advanced a modest package of changes on children's privacy and proposed a second round of wider reforms covering digital footprints, consent rules, access and erasure rights, and stronger scrutiny of high-impact AI. - The government's National AI Plan is described as light-touch and fragmented, and the article reports broad public support for stronger privacy protections. Summary: The tribunal ruling has renewed concern that retailers and others could scale the collection of biometric data under Australia’s largely unchanged privacy laws, potentially intensifying debates about consent and oversight. Progress on the proposed broader privacy reforms is uncertain and undetermined at this time.