New Zealand Supermarket Cooperative Publishes PIA for Facial Recognition Trial

Foodstuffs South Island has published a Privacy Impact Assessment outlining a facial recognition technology trial at two supermarkets in New Zealand’s South Island, detailing governance arrangements, operating thresholds, and privacy safeguards.

The trial will take place at New World South City in Invercargill and New World Bishopdale in Christchurch. According to the PIA, the facial recognition system is intended as an additional tool for staff, aimed at identifying individuals previously involved in violent or abusive incidents in order to improve safety outcomes.

The PIA sets strict criteria for watchlist inclusion. Only individuals aged 18 or over may be watchlisted, and inclusion requires two or more violent or abusive incidents. Foodstuffs states that individuals will not be included for suspected theft alone, nor on the basis of appearance or suspicion. Individuals under 18 are explicitly excluded.

The system is configured with a facial match threshold of 92.5 percent. When a match at or above this threshold occurs, an alert is generated for staff, after which human review and established in-store procedures determine any response. The PIA identifies false positives as a known risk and frames human verification as a critical control.

On data handling, the assessment states that images and biometric templates are created for all customers entering the store, but for individuals not on the watchlist, the captured data is deleted within seconds. Match-related records are retained for a limited period, such as up to three months, depending on circumstances.

Foodstuffs states that the trial has been designed to comply with New Zealand’s Biometric Processing Privacy Code 2025 and includes an oversight and evaluation framework to assess outcomes and risks.

The initiative follows earlier facial recognition trials by Foodstuffs North Island and reflects broader retail sector interest in using facial recognition for safety and security purposes in New Zealand.

Sources: Foodstuffs South Island, RNZ, Inside Retail

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team