Greens Senator David Shoebridge has called for Parliament to urgently review the widespread use of retail surveillance technology following a Crikey investigation.
Last week, Crikey reported on Auror, a little-known “crime intelligence” platform used in 40% of Australian stores, like Woolworths and Coles, that the company claims can be used to predict crime.
The software allows users to easily share information like incident reports, CCTV footage and licence plate numbers with other users and police.
The company also said the software integrates with automatic licence plate recognition technology to offer real-time monitoring of cars, which it offers police access to, essentially converting thousands of stores’ cameras into a nationwide car surveillance network.
Shoebridge said the widespread use of technology like Auror shows that the government has been slow to act on aggressive invasions of privacy and exploitation.
“This is a matter that deserves very close parliamentary scrutiny, and I’m calling for urgent review and regulation of these technologies to safeguard the public,” he told Crikey.
“It’s frightening that Australians are being profiled, tracked and having their data accessed by businesses and police, with massive potential for misuse but no oversight.”
Shoebridge said that surveillance technology can enable racial profiling and discrimination against communities of colour and vulnerable groups.
“As these technologies become increasingly widespread we urgently need to establish stronger privacy protections and firm guardrails against their misuse.”
Australian retailers have been experimenting with new technologies to expand their retail surveillance. Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys paused their use of facial recognition technology following a CHOICE investigation last year. Last week, Guardian Australia reported that Woolworths is expanding a trial using artificial intelligence to monitor self-serve checkout counters.
I leave my house to go the shopping centre 1 km away. On my way I am;
*I am filmed crossing two traffic intersections.
*my car Bluetooth signature is recorded passing said traffic intersections
*I am filmed driving in and out of shopping centre by multiple cameras.
*I am filmed parking my car
*My car number plate is noted by a passing police car.
My car number plate is recorded in shopping centre car park.
*I am filmed by multiple possibly hundreds of cameras inside shipping centre as well as in shops.
*All my credit/debit/phone purchases are recorded.
*My car GPS tracks all my driving to and from shopping centre.
*My phone tracks all locations I have been too as well.
*I am filmed by private CCTV and dash cams any number of times.
The horse already bolted. Argument is a moot point.
Ah for the good old days, when you could just hang a sign on your front door saying, “Gone to the shops. Back in 10 minutes.”
I have never understood why the standard wording on such signs is “Back in [time period]” without either a start or finish time so that it gives little help to anyone who needs to know when the person who put up the sign is going to return. At best it sets an upper limit for the time before the person comes back, which is not so bad if it’s 10 minutes but rather grim if it’s a few hours. “Back at [time of day]” or, if it’s not today, “Back at [date][time of day]” would be far more helpful. Is the standard sign intended to be unhelpful?
Because if you have a sign like “Back in 10 mins” you can reuse it whenever you need a bathroom break.
Exactly! It is for the convenience of the one who puts up the sign, not those who encounter it.
Or to go to the toilet.
Privacy still does exist Phone any bureaucracy and you will be told that privacy considerations are such they cannot do anything for you So privacy is the way bureaucrats git rid of taxpayers
It does not matter if a thousand people see you on your way to the shops. That’s life.
It does matter if a thousand people get together to permanently record when and where they saw you and what you were doing. That’s an invasion of your privacy.
You’re right that government and private surveillance is becoming ubiquitous. Hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. But if we’ve learnt anything from the steady march of new, intrusive technologies being rolled out, there’s always more coming in the future. Taking the opportunity to recognise what’s happening, understand its impact and regulate it for the best of the public is better than just surrendering ourselves to the panopticon!
The question remains – how is the data stored and for how long is the data kept? For example, is the data backed up and therefore stored for an extended period or is it proactively purged when no longer required?
I note in another Crikey article Woolworths are quoted as saying, “Importantly, customers can opt-out by using the traditional checkout
process.”
So in other words, if you decide to go the slow route (permanently understaffed full service), you won’t be surveilled but if you use the fast checkout facility you’ll be profiled. Thanks for the option Woolworths.
A friend had her purse stolen at a Target store. Staff later told her CCTV did not record the incident because it happened out of camera range. This is despite the theft occurring near the checkout. They just couldn’t be bothered helping her it seems.
Thank you Graeski. As you point out, to assume that the collated data is only going to be used benevolently, is naive in the extreme.
Own thought: As resources of all kinds increasingly end up in the hands of the few, deprivation of the many necessarily follows.
Inevitably “law and order” sides with the “law-abiding” and, equally inevitably, traditional methods of protest – marches, strikes, boycotts, etc. are reclassified as being against the law, criminal.
So the screws tighten, social norms break down and basically all goes to shit.
Its not a matter of letting this stuff happen because you have got nothing to hide. If this system/infrastructure gets built then you may well find that down the track some bad actor will make something about you wrong and use the system to track you and punish you. In the 1930 the Germany tolerated homosexuals but required them to be regustered. When the Nazis took over they were no longer tolerated and the very convenient list enabled a rapid extermination. Just dont allow the tools for oppression to be built in the first place.
IBM enabled the Holocaust with their punch-card system to track jewish families.