The government has been looking at barriers that prevent supermarkets and shops using facial recognition more often. File photo. Photo: RNZ
The Justice Minister asked a retail crime surveillance company to help change privacy laws, a newly released email suggests - but the company now says it misspoke.
The government has been looking at barriers that prevent supermarkets and shops using facial recognition more often.
Auckland tech firm Auror - which has advocated for facial recognition technology - emailed Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith's office in February, documents released under the Official Information Act show.
"The minister asked us to work with his office on how to strengthen legislation to provide more certainty for tech providers," Auror said in the email, referring to an introductory meeting with Goldsmith a few weeks before.
But after its email was released under the OIA, Auror told RNZ it had misspoke.
"Unfortunately, the language in the email you're referring to is incorrect and does not reflect those discussions," it said last week.
"Auror has not been asked to work on legislation, and we have not done so."
Facial recognition fans
Goldsmith wants more facial recognition to combat theft and assaults on retail staff.
But he told RNZ on Wednesday: "No decisions regarding facial recognition have been made."
He had quietly ordered a review of the Privacy Act in September around any barriers to it, but the law remained unchanged.
Auror had wanted to talk to him about "pragmatic policy interventions", the OIA papers showed.
The firm - New Zealand's biggest player in retail crime technology - has shifted from not trusting facial recognition's accuracy three years ago, to saying it is now 99.9 percent accurate and retailers need to adopt it - while also promising to build systems to support its use.
Goldsmith told RNZ he met again with Auror just two weeks ago.
"I meet with a range of stakeholders to discuss the government's work programme.
"I met with Auror again last week."
He said he told all groups on retail crime to work with his ministerial advisory group (MAG).
Auror said this was the message it had received was to work with the MAG, "which we have done".
Not a barrier
Retailers in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US have been pushing for more high-tech options to combat the shoplifting and assaults they say are on the rise.
Tech companies like Auror stand to benefit.
The proportion of retail crime reported through Auror to police has skyrocketed, from 17 percent of all cases nation-wide in 2017, to 65 percent in 2022. Between 2022 and 2024, crime reports through Auror doubled to 12,000 a month; with the retail crime portion of that quadrupling from 2000 to 8000 reports a month, police told RNZ.
Its main business is providing an automated number-plate-identifying software system, but Auror has also said facial recognition was now so accurate that "we think [it] is a key part of stopping crime".
Goldsmith told Justice Ministry officials in September to carry out a rapid review of the Privacy Act around the technology.
"Concerns have been raised that the Act presents a barrier to retailers effectively using technology for crime prevention, particularly facial recognition technology [FRT]," a briefing newly released to RNZ said.
But those concerns did not stack up.
Retailers instead told officials that they wanted more guidance from the Privacy Commissioner.
Around the same time, the ministerial advisory group on retail crime was working on an "ethical" policy framework for facial recognition.
It also ended up not recommending any law change.
"It sees FRT as a future solution for addressing retail crime, but notes that its use will not be appropriate for every business, given its complexity and associated legal and operational challenges," officials told Goldsmith December.
'Happily support potential policy changes'
While all this was going on, Auror asked in October to meet the minister. This meeting went ahead in December.
Goldsmith told RNZ he took no meeting notes and the "exact discussions or any further in-person discussions not included in my diary cannot be recalled".
In February, Auror emailed the justice minister's office as a follow-up, after the prime minister had talked about pending policy proposals coming from the MAG.
It "wanted to ensure you were aware that Auror would happily support potential policy changes, but this will require us being across what is being considered and knowing the timing on potential announcements".
Goldsmith's office rejected giving Auror any heads-up, an email showed.
The company had said it would welcome "any engagement" on the rapid review of the Act that Goldsmith had ordered.
Newsroom reported that the review had been done quietly and without external consultation. It asked in February for the findings, but was turned down - these were under active consideration, Goldsmith's office told it.
'Cautious tick' triggers facial recognition action
More work was needed, the ministerial advisory group advised Goldsmith, and more work was subsequently done.
The privacy commissioner came back in June with a "cautious tick" for facial recognition technology (FRT) in supermarkets, after a trial in 25 Foodstuffs stores.
Goldsmith called this a "great starting point", even asking officials to start looking into if there should be a centralised FRT system, to get around any unevenness in privacy and other safeguards.
The commissioner soon issued the country's first Biometrics Code - the human face is a form of biometrics - which comes into force in November. It lays out how retailers using high-tech can stay within the law.
Until that point, other big retailers had been nervous to use facial recognition, the briefing to Goldsmith showed.
Sharing camera footage and data - such as a suspect's name - with each other, Auror or police appeared fraught to them. In addition, some shoppers and civil liberties activists see the technology as intrusive and question where data ends up.
But the Commissioner told them the law allows retailers to band together and share personal information to combat crime.
Immediately after his "cautious tick", a group of a dozen or so of the largest retailers - from Briscoes to Woolworths, and even two telcos - geared up.
"We collectively make a commitment to work with Retail NZ to develop best practice to ensure FRT is used only to keep our people safe, and in line with our obligations under the Privacy Act," they said.
Their working group has carried on since.
'Exploring safeguards'
Auror also pitched in.
"The technology can and should play a role in making people and communities safer, and we've already publicly shared that we're exploring how the right safeguards can be developed to promote its safe, transparent and effective use by retailers," head of trust and safety Nick McDonnell told RNZ last week.
The firm was estimated last year to be worth half a billion dollars. Its partnerships with NZ Police since 2015 and other law enforcement agencies have helped it immensely.
For Goldsmith's rapid review, officials said they talked to iwi, a union, lawyers, the privacy commissioner and police, as well as retailers.
Facial recognition was "one of the areas I have asked the MAG to explore, and consult stakeholders such as Auror on", he said.
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