Bunnings breached privacy of customers by using facial recognition, watchdog finds

A Bunnings store. The hardware chain breached customers rights by using facial scanning routinely, the privacy commissioner has found. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Bunnings breached the privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of Australians through the use of facial recognition technologies in stores to scan every customer on entry that were aimed at addressing theft or store safety, the Australian privacy commissioner has ruled.

In 2022, it was revealed the hardware chain was one of a number of retailers using facial recognition tech in stores to check the face of every customer entering the store against a database of banned customers.