Focus areas
Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) scans and creates a digital map of a person's face and compares it to a watchlist to verify a person’s identity by analysing their facial features.
Between February and September 2024, Foodstuffs North Island (FSNI) ran a trial of FRT in some of its supermarkets. The Privacy Commissioner ran an inquiry alongside that and released his findings on 4 June 2025.
Inquiry findings
Read a copy of the Inquiry report (opens to PDF, 1690KB).
Read a short summary (opens to PDF, 203KB).
The Inquiry found that FSNI’s trial use of FRT complied with the Privacy Act. While the level of privacy intrusion was high because the face of every person that enters the store is collected, the privacy safeguards in the trial reduced it to an acceptable level. Read our media release.
Our report is specific to the operation of FRT during the trial, with the privacy safeguards FSNI put in place during the trial being a key factor in our finding. The Inquiry identified further improvements that would need to be addressed before FSNI considers using FRT permanently or expanding it into additional supermarkets.
The trial findings will help other businesses to ask the right questions about whether FRT is necessary and appropriate for them and to understand what they would need to do to set FRT up and run it in a privacy protective way
The report sets out the Privacy Commissioners expectations for the use of FRT across nine key areas.
Foodstuff’s North Island trial
The Privacy Commissioner recommended Foodstuffs North Island conduct a trial of FRT in their stores, which he monitored to better understand the privacy implications for New Zealanders and ensure FRT complied with the Privacy Act. He also wanted to evaluate if it was an effective tool in reducing the level of serious retail crime compared with other less privacy-intrusive options.
FSNI ran their FRT trial from 8 February to 7 September 2024 in 25 FSNI supermarkets across the North Island.
During the trial, 225,972,004 faces were scanned (includes multiple scans of same person) with 99.999% deleted within one minute, and there were 1742 alerts of which 1208 confirmed matches.
The Privacy Commissioner announced the start of his Inquiry in April 2024 - read the media release.
See the Terms of Reference for the Inquiry (opens to PDF, 127KB).
He started his evaluation of the trial results in September 2024 and completed the evaluation following the provision of the independent evaluator’s report. Read our media release about the Commissioner's initial comments on the trial.
FRT and the Biometrics Code
The Biometrics Processing Privacy Code applies to biometric information; this includes a photo of someone’s face used in a Facial Recognition System. Information about use and implementation of FRT will be contained within OPC’s new Biometrics Guidance, which will be released later in 2025.
Using FRT
FRT systems have potential benefits, but they also raise significant privacy concerns, including overcollection of personal information and unfair application. Organisations should consider the seriousness of the problem they’re trying to solve and consider what other options are available besides FRT.
If FRT is considered necessary, its use should be done in way that minimises the associated privacy risks. There are several steps organisations can take to minimise the impact of FRT.
Read about how to use FRT well.
Concerns about the use of FRT
If you have been affected by an intrusive privacy practice, we encourage you to raise that with the agency concerned. If you cannot resolve the matter with them, you are welcome to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.
