Latest news with #PrivacyCommissioner
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Facial recognition: Supermarket trial 'a great starting point'
A system that was shared among retailers with a centralised offender dataset or watchlist could be looked at. Photo: 123RF Some national retail chains are considering whether to deploy their own facial recognition systems, says an industry group. A new evaluation by the Privacy Commissioner has given a "cautious tick" to the way Foodstuffs has trailed facial recognition in some supermarkets to combat shoplifting and aggression against staff. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says the option of having a centralised system of facial recognition is something he expects officials to consider. The evaluation said a system that was shared among retailers with a centralised offender dataset or watchlist could be looked at. "The suggestion is that this may potentially improve the effectiveness of retail use of FRT [facial recognition technology]." This might be where repeat offenders from other locations were not included on a store's watchlist, it added. "There are also suggestions that a centralised system could mitigate security risks such as data breaches, based on the assumption that it would be easier to protect than storage systems in individual businesses.". Such a step would require closer regulatory monitoring and oversight, according to the evaluation. Goldsmith said he expected a ministerial advisory group to look at the centralised option as well as others raised. The supermarket trial was a "great starting point", he said. The evaluation had noted privacy concerns must be carefully safeguarded, and the minister now expected the advisory group to continue to look at this technology "as an option to be used more widely". Retail NZ signalled that was on the horizon. It would not name any specific stores, but said other businesses had been watching the Foodstuffs trial and "a number" were investigating facial recognition technology for their own operations "in the near future". "We know that major retailers, some of the national chains, are certainly looking into it," it said on Wednesday. Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said it was too early to say anything about the centralised option, as it was still reviewing the commissioner's evaluation. "Retailers are crying out for proactive solutions that prevent crime and enhance the safety of their staff and customers... alongside other crime prevention tools such as security guards, fog cannons, staff training, body cameras and other technology solutions." Young heads up a working group of a number of large retailers developing "agreed approaches" to crime prevention, including facial recognition. Across the Tasman, hardware chain Bunnings has been in a legal tussle over its use of facial recognition, with Australia's privacy watchdog accusing it of breaching thousands of customers' privacy, and the chain recently filing arguments against it. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Scoop
Supermarket Trial Of FRT: Inquiry Results Announced
Press Release – Office of the Privacy Commissioner 'FRT systems have potential safety benefits, but they do raise significant privacy concerns, including the unnecessary or unfair collection of peoples information, misidentification, technical bias which can reinforce existing inequities and human … Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster has found that the live facial recognition technology model trialled by Foodstuffs North Island is compliant with the Privacy Act. However, his Inquiry report released today, shows that any business considering or using FRT needs to make sure it sets things up right to stay within the law. 'While the use of FRT during the trial was effective at reducing harmful behaviour (especially reducing serious violent incidents) it has also shown that there are many things that need to be taken into account. 'FRT systems have potential safety benefits, but they do raise significant privacy concerns, including the unnecessary or unfair collection of people's information, misidentification, technical bias which can reinforce existing inequities and human bias, or the ability to be used for surveillance'. 'These issues become particularly critical when people need to access essential services such as supermarkets. FRT will only be acceptable if the use is necessary and the privacy risks are successfully managed'. The purpose of the Privacy Commissioner's Inquiry into Foodstuffs North Island's trial use of live FRT was to understand its privacy impacts, its compliance with the Privacy Act, and to evaluate if it was an effective tool in reducing serious retail crime compared with other less privacy intrusive options. The Inquiry found while the level of privacy intrusion was high because every visitor's face is collected, the privacy safeguards used in the trial reduced it to an acceptable level. 'Foodstuffs North Island designed the privacy safeguards used in the trial with feedback from my Office. This has provided some useful lessons for other businesses which may be considering using FRT.' The main privacy safeguards in place during the trial were: – Images that did not result in a positive match were deleted immediately, as recommended by OPC – this meant there was very little privacy impact on most people who entered the trial stores – The system was set up to only identify people who had engaged in seriously harmful behaviour, particularly violent offending – Staff were not permitted to add images of children or young people under 18, or people thought to be vulnerable, to the watchlist – There was no sharing of watchlist information between stores – During the trial, the operational threshold that triggered an FRT alert was raised from 90% to 92.5% likelihood of the images matching, reducing the chances that people would be misidentified while managing down the 'computer says yes' risk – Match alerts were verified by two trained staff, ensuring that human decision making was a key part of the process – Access to the FRT system and information was restricted to trained authorised staff only – Images collected were not permitted to be used for training data purposes – Systems were reviewed and improved during the trial where misidentifications or errors occurred. 'There is still some work to do to increase the safety and effectiveness of FRT software use in the New Zealand context, as FRT technology has been developed overseas and has not been trained on the New Zealand population. 'As a result, we can't be completely confident it has fully addressed technical bias issues, including the potential negative impact on Māori and Pacific people. This means the technology must only be used with the right processes in place, including human checks that an alert is accurate before acting on it.' 'Some improvements will also need to be made by FSNI before the use of FRT is made permanent or expanded to more stores. These focus on ensuring the documented processes and system settings are updated to match what happens in practice, including ongoing review of the use of FRT to make sure its use is justified as an effective tool for reducing serious harm offending. 'I also expect that Foodstuffs North Island will put in place monitoring and review to allow it to evaluate the impact of skin tone on identification accuracy and store response, and to provide confidence to the regulator and customers that key privacy safeguards remain in place. '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 my expectations for the use of FRT across nine key areas, says the Privacy Commissioner. The FRT trial started on 8 February and ended on 7 September 2024 and ran in 25 supermarkets. During the trial, 225,972,004 faces were scanned (includes multiple scans of the same person), with 99.999% of these deleted within one minute, and there were 1742 alerts of which 1208 were confirmed matches. OPC is currently developing a Biometric Processing Privacy Code, which applies to biometric information, including a photo of someone's face used in a Facial Recognition System. The new Code is expected to be published in mid-2025. The Biometrics Code is designed to provide guardrails for the safe use of biometrics generally, including FRT, in New Zealand.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Scoop
Supermarket Trial Of FRT: Inquiry Results Announced
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster has found that the live facial recognition technology model trialled by Foodstuffs North Island is compliant with the Privacy Act. However, his Inquiry report released today, shows that any business considering or using FRT needs to make sure it sets things up right to stay within the law. "While the use of FRT during the trial was effective at reducing harmful behaviour (especially reducing serious violent incidents) it has also shown that there are many things that need to be taken into account. "FRT systems have potential safety benefits, but they do raise significant privacy concerns, including the unnecessary or unfair collection of people's information, misidentification, technical bias which can reinforce existing inequities and human bias, or the ability to be used for surveillance". "These issues become particularly critical when people need to access essential services such as supermarkets. FRT will only be acceptable if the use is necessary and the privacy risks are successfully managed". The purpose of the Privacy Commissioner's Inquiry into Foodstuffs North Island's trial use of live FRT was to understand its privacy impacts, its compliance with the Privacy Act, and to evaluate if it was an effective tool in reducing serious retail crime compared with other less privacy intrusive options. The Inquiry found while the level of privacy intrusion was high because every visitor's face is collected, the privacy safeguards used in the trial reduced it to an acceptable level. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading "Foodstuffs North Island designed the privacy safeguards used in the trial with feedback from my Office. This has provided some useful lessons for other businesses which may be considering using FRT." The main privacy safeguards in place during the trial were: - Images that did not result in a positive match were deleted immediately, as recommended by OPC - this meant there was very little privacy impact on most people who entered the trial stores - The system was set up to only identify people who had engaged in seriously harmful behaviour, particularly violent offending - Staff were not permitted to add images of children or young people under 18, or people thought to be vulnerable, to the watchlist - There was no sharing of watchlist information between stores - During the trial, the operational threshold that triggered an FRT alert was raised from 90% to 92.5% likelihood of the images matching, reducing the chances that people would be misidentified while managing down the "computer says yes" risk - Match alerts were verified by two trained staff, ensuring that human decision making was a key part of the process - Access to the FRT system and information was restricted to trained authorised staff only - Images collected were not permitted to be used for training data purposes - Systems were reviewed and improved during the trial where misidentifications or errors occurred. "There is still some work to do to increase the safety and effectiveness of FRT software use in the New Zealand context, as FRT technology has been developed overseas and has not been trained on the New Zealand population. "As a result, we can't be completely confident it has fully addressed technical bias issues, including the potential negative impact on Māori and Pacific people. This means the technology must only be used with the right processes in place, including human checks that an alert is accurate before acting on it." "Some improvements will also need to be made by FSNI before the use of FRT is made permanent or expanded to more stores. These focus on ensuring the documented processes and system settings are updated to match what happens in practice, including ongoing review of the use of FRT to make sure its use is justified as an effective tool for reducing serious harm offending. "I also expect that Foodstuffs North Island will put in place monitoring and review to allow it to evaluate the impact of skin tone on identification accuracy and store response, and to provide confidence to the regulator and customers that key privacy safeguards remain in place. "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 my expectations for the use of FRT across nine key areas, says the Privacy Commissioner. The FRT trial started on 8 February and ended on 7 September 2024 and ran in 25 supermarkets. During the trial, 225,972,004 faces were scanned (includes multiple scans of the same person), with 99.999% of these deleted within one minute, and there were 1742 alerts of which 1208 were confirmed matches. OPC is currently developing a Biometric Processing Privacy Code, which applies to biometric information, including a photo of someone's face used in a Facial Recognition System. The new Code is expected to be published in mid-2025. The Biometrics Code is designed to provide guardrails for the safe use of biometrics generally, including FRT, in New Zealand.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong woman, 23, arrested on suspicion of doxxing ex-boyfriend
A 23-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly disclosing the personal information of her former boyfriend after he dated someone else, Hong Kong's privacy watchdog has said. Advertisement The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data apprehended the woman in the New Territories on Tuesday on suspicion of contravening the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, following a complaint filed by the victim. Investigations revealed that she was suspected of disclosing the victim's personal information after they broke up in mid-April and he started another intimate relationship. The office said a personal online account posted the victim's data three times in late April, exposing details such as his Chinese name, partial English name, photos, occupation and social media handle. The posts also revealed the names of the universities and courses the victim attended, as well as a picture of his university student card. Advertisement 'In late April 2025, three posts containing the personal data of the victim were posted in a personal account on a social media platform, alongside some negative comments against him, and internet users were incited to 'like' the posts in exchange for further disclosure of the victim's personal data,' the office said.
Global News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Greenbelt, mandate letter emails unearthed on Ford government staffers' personal accounts
Multiple former Ford government staffers have turned over emails from their personal accounts relating to the Greenbelt and drafting mandate letters, Global News has learned, after the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered them to search their accounts for communications relating to official government business. Among the staffers to discover emails which they had previously failed to disclose was the former executive assistant to Premier Doug Ford, who handed officials an email he received from a developer relating to the Greenbelt. The emails, turned over to the Ontario NDP as part of a freedom of information appeal, reveal that a developer thanked Ford's executive assistant for 'taking the time to further assist' with their 'Greenbelt glitch.' The email was sent on July 4, 2022, just days after then-housing minister Steve Clark was issued a mandate letter in which Ford instructed him to 'codify processes for swaps, expansions, contractions and policy updates for the Greenbelt.' Story continues below advertisement A spokesperson for the premier's office defended the discovery of the emails. 'At the request of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and out of an abundance of caution, our office contacted former staff members to confirm any records they may have had on personal accounts,' they said. 'Draft Records related to the broad policy proposal were created during a transition period immediately following the election. Final versions of those records have been previously identified in this request, and relevant portions have been released publicly.' Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles suggested the use of personal accounts was a deliberate strategy to conceal communications. 'What we've found is increasingly there's a pattern of the government, top political staffers in the premier's office, actually making it very difficult, hiding information, emails in private accounts as a way to get around the laws that clearly say people have a right to know,' she said. 'What's shocking is the extent to which they've tried to hide this.' Greenbelt glitch email One of the emails held on a personal account pertained to Sergio Manchia, the principal of Urbancore Developments. Story continues below advertisement He had, for the better part of 20 years, been lobbying the province to remove a four-hectare piece of land in Hamilton from the Greenbelt. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy In the summer of 2022, however, the effort to convert the property into residential land took on renewed urgency when Manchia and his colleagues learned the Ford government was considering changes to the Greenbelt. 'I do recall we were anticipating an announcement,' Manchia told Ontario's integrity commissioner during the office's Greenbelt investigation. As word of the impending land removals began to spread, Manchia emailed two members of Ford's office on July 4 and 5, 2022: Ford's then-executive assistant and the then-executive director of stakeholder relations. Both were contacted by Manchia using their private email addresses. 'Thank you for taking the time to further assist us along with respect to our 4 ha Greenbelt 'glitch' that we have been working along with the City of Hamilton, with Province now for some time,' Manchia said in the first email. 'As per our discussion, I wanted to send you some mapping that might just help when describing what I was trying to explain,' Manchia said in a second email about his Greenbelt property in Hamilton. In one email, Manchia thanks the two Ford staffers and asks them to 'please advise our next steps.' Story continues below advertisement Weeks after those emails, according to the integrity commissioner's report, Manchia and his team participated in phone calls with senior staff in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. They eventually took part in in-person meetings to directly discuss the property. Manchia then purchased four tickets to a stag and doe wedding fundraiser held in the Ford family backyard in August of 2022 — an event attended by other individuals connected to the Greenbelt scandal, according to information made public by the integrity commissioner. Ford told the integrity commissioner that he had no recollection of meeting Manchia or having any conversations about the Greenbelt property. 'The sole record relating to a specific property was sent to an individual with no involvement in this file related to a proposal for removal that had long-standing support from the local municipality, including a letter from the then-mayor of Hamilton and a council resolution,' the premier's office said. Manchia did not respond to questions from Global News ahead of publication. Private email used to draft mandate letters The Greenbelt email wasn't the only government communication held on the personal email accounts of former staffers. Story continues below advertisement In fact, a small tranche of documents was handed over to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) after 15 former members of the premier's office were ordered to search their private email accounts and devices to look for Greenbelt-related records. 'Seventeen records have been located,' the IPC said in a letter sent to the NDP and shared with Global News. Among the records were 16 'draft versions' of the 2022 mandate letters Ford would eventually give his cabinet ministers, outlining the direction and expectations as crafted by the premier's office. The records included 'draft versions of slides' and the 'final slide deck' of mandate letters — official government records that were being drafted on private email servers. The emails located by former staffers relate to the Greenbelt in some way; it is not clear if other government emails were also contained on those accounts unrelated to the Greenbelt. The premier's office said all 15 staff did not locate records but did not answer how many had ended up finding messages. The Manchia emails, the IPC said, were 'located by a former premier's office staff member in his personal email account.' The staffer claimed he 'did not recall receiving the emails' and 'does not know how the developer had obtained his personal email account.' Story continues below advertisement The IPC's office added that the staffer said that he didn't solicit, respond to or forward the emails. 'The staff member has also confirmed that he did not have any discussions or communications with the developer or anyone on the developer's behalf about the emails nor the subject matter of the emails,' the IPC's office said. A 'pattern' of personal devices The revelations unearthed by the NDP are the latest in a series of instances where staff in the Ford government appear to be using personal phones and email accounts to communicate. At the end of last year, Premier Ford was ordered to hand over records from his personal device, which the IPC said he was likely using to do government business. The province is currently appealing that ruling, seeking a judicial review. Story continues below advertisement 'I think it is absolutely a deliberate pattern where this government is trying to hide from the law,' Stiles said. 'We have an RCMP criminal investigation underway, I am sure we will see something come from that eventually. But in the meantime, Ontarians have a right to know exactly what happened here.' Elsewhere, Ford's chief of staff lost months' worth of government-related texts on his personal phone and has used his Gmail account to plan government policy. 'These are the very top political staff inside the premier's office,' Stiles said. 'There's no way the premier didn't know what was going on.' The former housing minister's chief of staff has also been ordered to search his personal account for Greenbelt-related emails. He must either hand them over or sign a sworn affidavit saying they do not exist.
