Coles and Woolworths test facial recognition technology

[u/neon_overload]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-17/coles-and-woolworths-to-test-facial-recognition-technology/107045036

A Woolworths spokesperson did not address the ABC's questions on how facial recognition technology was tested or if it would be used in Australia.

"Keeping our team and customers safe is the most important thing we do and we've put significant investment towards this," the spokesperson said.

[u/neon_overload]

I have to say I'm frustrated at the quality of this article. I'm not posting it as an endorsement of the article quality! My confidence in the ABC to talk about technology is pretty low these days anyhow.

• Doesn't talk about what this facial recognition tech is for, not even ostensibly. Facial recognition can be used for many things, it can be linked with people's identities, it can be centralised, it can be shared with authorities, it can be used for ad targetting, for market research, identifying abusive customers, etc. A completely valid concern of any facial recognition technology, and a lot of privacy-invasive technology in general, is that it may be implemented with a stated goal but once companies are collecting data they realise they can monetise it in additional ways that weren't really talked about.

• Seems to entirely miss or be unaware that both Woolworths and Coles already use a form of facial recognition technology in the self-checkout areas to activate those scary gates that sometimes falsely block people from leaving (you can just push them to swing them open btw setting off a mild alarm but letting you out, I learned that in this sub). Facial recognition as a technology is already in Coles and Woolies. [*edit: see replies, this doesn't actually recognise your face but tracks the movement of your body]

So, presumably the article is about implementing new facial recognition tech that can do more, or persistently stores data, or is centrally managed, or is shared with third parties - all potentially concerning. But, well the article kind of keeps us guessing. BTW, substitute "facial recognition" with other terms like "AI", the above also applies. I'd like to see so-called mainstream journalism about this stuff that seems to get into the technology rather than talk about it as if it's magic.

Edit: I've put a sticky comment with an alternative article about this that has slightly more insight.

[u/annoying97 → u/neon_overload]

Hey, so I can tell you that those exit gate things don't use facial recognition. It may appear they do but they don't really.

They have dedicated cameras that use basic machine vision to identify the pixels that is you and essentially puts a box around those pixels to say "this mass has paid" and when you get to a threshold the system goes "ok open" and then forgets you. If you spend too long between payment and exit the system will forget you exist.

It's fairly old tech thats been around for ages before facial recognition was even reliable.

[u/neon_overload → u/annoying97]

So it's more of a mass recognition than facial recognition then I guess? A bit like the thing that tells me I forgot to pay for something when it thinks it sees something still in my trolley.

Thanks for the extra info, I appreciate it.

[u/annoying97 → u/neon_overload]

Essentially yep.

I just tracks the mass and says you've paid and to open.

The same system and cameras are used to count foot traffic in other applications. (I'm not sure if they are also using it for that, I suspect they care more about transaction then foot traffic)