Australia’s second-largest appliance chain, The Good Guys, has paused the use of facial recognition technology in its stores following a complaint made by consumer group, CHOICE to the country’s privacy regulator, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Reuters reported.

A day earlier, on June 27, 2022, CHOICE had sent a complaint to the OAIC saying that the groups were using technology that was “unreasonably intrusive” on its customers. Appliance chain, The Good Guys; hardware chain, Bunnings, and the Australian branch of Kmart were all named in the complaint. The three retailers combined, have a total annual sales of about A$ 25 billion across 800 stores. 

In an email to Reuters, a spokesperson for JB Hi-Fi, the parent company of The Good Guys, said that they had paused the trial of their “upgraded security system” that used facial recognition technology in two of its stores in Melbourne. Simon McDowell, Chief Executive Officer of Bunnings told Reuters that the technology was only for “security” and that he was “disappointed by CHOICE’s characterisation.”

Amy Pereira, policy advisor for CHOICE said that facial recognition technology could pose a “significant risk” to people including things such as “invasion of privacy, misidentification,” as well as “cyber crime through data breaches and identity theft.”

The OAIC has said that it is investigating the claims made by CHOICE. The complaints is just one of many that have cropped up over the last few years as consumer groups warn of the implications of the technology and the potential biases that Artificial Intelligence programs might possess. 

Last year, the OAIC ordered Clearview AI, a software company that develops profiles on individuals through images collected on social media, to stop the practice and destroy the data it had collected on Australian nationals. That same year, the Australian 7-Eleven chain stores were ordered to destroy the facial prints that it had collected on iPads at 700 of their locations.