Consumer and privacy advocates are worried about the secrecy of AI-powered advertising in shopping centres around Aotearoa.
Hidden facial-detection cameras are currently being used to do just that in Westfield Shopping Centres in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and Ōtautahi/Christchurch.
Westfield's parent company, Australian-owned Scentre Group, has just installed the 'SmartScreen' cameras.
They use AI to guess someone's age, gender, or mood to target them with personalised ads.
Westfield's privacy policy does refer to SmartScreens, pointing out they may collect the following from customers:
"Audience measurement information collected passively using in-centre technologies such as SmartScreen Advertising Units which utilise image processing software to aggregate data such as shopper numbers and demographics."
Consumer advocates aren't impressed
Jon Duffy, Kiritaki/Consumer NZ's CEO said it's "ridiculous" to think customers would bother reading the privacy policy before shopping.
"These companies need to do a better job of informing the public about their data collection and use.”
For example, Westfield Riccarton has signs reading "for your safety: areas of this shopping centre may be under video surveillance," but it isn't for safety, Duffy said.
“We are seriously concerned New Zealanders are unaware they are being filmed and their biometric data analysed, with advertising targeted at them on that basis,” he added.
Gehan Gunasekara, co-founder of the Privacy Foundation New Zealand says they may be Smartscreens now, but it could develop into something more dodgy.
"People might start to accept this kind of thing, but then the next thing is that you might be offered health products on the basis of the way you walk, or physical characteristics that suggest you have some kind of disease.”
He says consumer awareness, and secrecy are other issues.
Newshub has contacted Scentre Group for comment but has not received a response.
Is this scenario familiar?
It comes after Kiritaki Aoteaora/Consumer NZ revealed last November 29 Foodstuffs North Island stores were using facial recognition to identify people who might pose a theft or security risk.
They saved biometrics for up to five days, and databases of past in-store offenders to deny them entry.
Foodstuffs disbanded the tech last December.
Who's behind it?
French company Quividi's software captures the biometrics, or physical traits, of more than 1.5 billion people a month worldwide.
With that information they can swap out ads as well as count viewers, engagement time, or sales conversions.
Quividi says its tech is 'facial detection' rather than 'facial recognition', and can't identify a person.
Overseas
Meanwhile in Australia, Scentre Group first used the screens in 2019 to target different Samsung Galaxy S10 ads at various customers.
Quividi said SmartScreen personalised ads there lead to an average 24 percent boost in sales, with older women increasing engagement time by 56 percent, and older men by 82 percent.
Meanwhile, large Australian stadiums have come under fire on Thursday for using facial recognition, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Sydney Cricket Ground, and Sydney's Allianz Stadium.
Toronto Star reported in 2020 that shopping centre owner Cadillac Fairview had broken privacy laws by using 'Anonymous Video Analytics', or facial recognition, without customers' knowledge or consent.
Cadillac Fairview said it didn't store biometrics, but its provider actually did - 5 million customers' worth.
Privacy issues
Westfield's privacy policy says its AI-based cameras do not identify individuals or record images of them.
The Privacy Act (2020), which protects Kiwis' personal information, says businesses must take "reasonable" steps to make sure customers are aware of data collected.
It doesn't cover anonymised data such as the case with SmartScreen ads.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner proposed a 'code of practice' for biometrics in Aotearoa last year - while the European Union passed its AI Act in June this year.
The Government has undertaken several work programmes to regulate AI, but hasn't hashed out a national strategy yet, pushed back until 2025.
