Latest / Best of Business / Kristina Harazim: Australian correspondent on the concerns raised over facial recognition technology

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Kristina Harazim: Australian correspondent on the concerns raised over facial recognition technology · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Right,
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  Speaker 1: LZ Correspondent Christina Harrison is with us.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Christina. Hello there. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. Have you guys had any
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  Speaker 1: updates on how many Australians are still missing in Nepal?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we have. We have 42 who are missing out
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  Speaker 2: of that 4,500 that you mentioned earlier. And earlier today,
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  Speaker 2: we got word of the first Australian death, and that's
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  Speaker 2: a 37-year-old man called Michael Keats. He's from New South Wales.
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  Speaker 2: His partner, Emily Boyd, made it public in a fundraising
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  Speaker 2: post yesterday. She said he'd been travelling with a group
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  Speaker 2: of Aussies as part of a tour run by the
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  Speaker 2: Trekkers Society when the flood hit in Nepal. That company
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  Speaker 2: has also posted its concerns for the others who still
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  Speaker 2: haven't been found. On Facebook, it said they were heading
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  Speaker 2: back from a hike when the flood hit. Our Foreign Minister,
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  Speaker 2: Penny Wong, said the government doesn't actually have official confirmation
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  Speaker 2: of Michael Keats' death, but she did acknowledge that the
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  Speaker 2: family had made it public and said her thoughts were
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  Speaker 2: with him.
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  Speaker 1: What are the concerns that are being raised now about
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  Speaker 1: the facial recognition technology in the stores?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, well, our consumer privacy advocates are drawing parallels between
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  Speaker 2: Australia and China and North Korea over facial recognition technology,
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  Speaker 2: which is being trialled here. Our two big supermarkets, Coles
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  Speaker 2: and Woolworths, which is run by the same company as
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  Speaker 2: your Woolworths, have been using smart trolleys and cameras, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know if you've seen over there, in the bagging
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  Speaker 2: areas for a while now, But last month they went
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  Speaker 2: on record to say they were testing facial recognition technology.
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  Speaker 2: The official reasons they've given are that they want to
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  Speaker 2: crack down on shoplifting and customer violence towards their staff.
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  Speaker 2: And those two issues have been making the news and
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  Speaker 2: videos have been posted on social media recently. So it
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  Speaker 2: appears to justify the use or at least a trial
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  Speaker 2: of the technology. Now, the way that works is that
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  Speaker 2: it scans the features of a person's face when they
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  Speaker 2: enter and and creates a unique digital code that identifies them.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds very sci-fi, but it's happening now. But it's this
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  Speaker 2: bit by bit increase in using the surveillance technology or
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  Speaker 2: what's called scope creep that's really bothering people. Experts are
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  Speaker 2: saying that, you know, once that technology is being used,
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  Speaker 2: more and more will be introduced. One said that eventually
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  Speaker 2: we might have to give up our biometric data just
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  Speaker 2: to buy a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread.
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  Speaker 2: So the supermarkets will have our face, our loyalty card,
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  Speaker 2: our bank card details, and who knows exactly what they're
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  Speaker 2: going to do with that data, but more than likely
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  Speaker 2: at least get us to spend more money. But other
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  Speaker 2: concerns have come up as well because of it. Some
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  Speaker 2: researchers are saying that surveillance technology is going to trigger
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  Speaker 2: social anxiety and paranoia. And at the moment, Australia doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have a dedicated facial recognition law. So more work will
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  Speaker 2: undoubtedly have to happen around that in the near future.
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  Speaker 1: Christina, it's been good to talk to you. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much for getting us up to date. This is
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  Speaker 1: Christina Harrison, Australia correspondent.