Supermarket giant Woolworths has expanded the use of technology that films customers scanning items at self-serve check-outs.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has expanded the use of technology that films customers scanning items at self-serve check-outs.
The trial by Woolworths initially began in Seven Hills, in Sydney’s west, in 2022 but has now been expanded to 250 stores along the country’s east coast.
This particular set of cameras at Woolworths sit above customers heads, and flags if a product has been missed or scanned as something else during the checkout process
While Woolworths says the tool is to stop accidental wrong scans, it doubles as a loss prevention tool to stop shoppers scanning pricey items such as mangoes in as brown onions which are cheaper.
Woolworths allows people to opt out of the security measure, and don’t collect biometric data or personal information.
However, while the footage can’t be viewed live, it is stored for training purposes with customer’s faces and pin pads blurred out.
“Following a recent trial phase, we’re expanding the rollout of this technology to more stores in NSW, Victoria and Queensland,” A Woolworths spokesperson told news.com.au.
“It helps reduce misscans and is one of a number of initiatives we’ve rolled out across our checkouts to make shopping more convenient and seamless.
“While most customers do the right thing at our self-serve checkouts, we’re all busy and mistakes can easily happen.
“We’d like to thank our customers for their support while we’ve implemented this initiative.”
In September last year, some customers of the supermarket threatened to boycott the chain.
Other frustrated shoppers have called on the supermarket to make changes to self-check-outs, or get rid of them altogether, with some already switching to competitors.
“I‘ve stopped going to my local Woolworths because of this,” one person said on Reddit at the time.
“I have legit just walked out of Woolies and left my stuff there because the self-service checkout wouldn‘t let me pay,” another said.
However, Woolworths isn’t the only store to take advantage of this technology.
Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys also copped major backlash over its use of facial recognition cameras in stores that shoppers labelled “creepy” and “disgusting”.
It was revealed last week in a Senate estimates hearing that investigations into Kmart and Bunnings over the technology could be finalised by June.
Kate Bower, data advocate from Choice, told The Guardian that the expansion of these technologies required new legislation.
“Currently, businesses are making up the rules as they go along and customers are left navigating the confusion and assessing the risks for themselves,” Ms Bower said.
“The Privacy Act review is an opportunity to reset the balance in favour of consumers by introducing a duty of care for businesses to use customer data fairly and safely.”
Extracted from news.com.au
