Latest / Best of Business / Melissa Haines: Bunnings NZ manager on the rollout of new facial recognition technology

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Melissa Haines: Bunnings NZ manager on the rollout of new facial recognition technology · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Bunnings has announced it has switched on the facial recognition
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  Speaker 2: cameras in New Zealand, but only in two stores in Hamilton.
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  Speaker 2: The retailer says threats against staff have more than doubled
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  Speaker 2: in the last four years. Over a third are linked
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  Speaker 2: to repeat offenders. Melissa Haynes as Bunnings's New Zealand general
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  Speaker 2: manager Home Melissa, Hello, why are you only doing two
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  Speaker 2: stores in Hamilton?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're taking a really considered approach with rolling out
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  Speaker 3: facial recognition technology. So we're starting with the two stores,
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  Speaker 3: make sure that we've got everything right from a training
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  Speaker 3: and operational perspective, and then we'll continue with phase roll
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  Speaker 3: out for the rest of the stores.
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  Speaker 2: So how long do you give it in Hamilton before
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  Speaker 2: you decide? Yep, pulpin for everybody else.
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  Speaker 3: We don't have a fixed timeline. It's going to depend
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  Speaker 3: on what we find over the next few weeks, but
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  Speaker 3: we are keen to get it into as many stores
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  Speaker 3: and pro as possible. If we're seeing that reduction and
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  Speaker 3: threatening behavior.
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  Speaker 2: How much opposition are you facing in New Zealand towards this.
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  Speaker 3: Actually, I've been really pleased with the positivity that we've
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  Speaker 3: had from this. I think there's a really good understanding
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  Speaker 3: of what our real tail team members are dealing with
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  Speaker 3: across the country, which unfortunately has been a very scary
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  Speaker 3: increase in violent and threatening behaviors in stores. And this
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  Speaker 3: is just, you know, one of the tools that hopefully
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  Speaker 3: is available, which is kind of a difference to reduce
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  Speaker 3: that kind of situation that our team and our customers
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  Speaker 3: are facing every day.
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  Speaker 2: Do you can you assure because the texts I've had
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  Speaker 2: are along the lines of worried about you guys losing
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  Speaker 2: people's faces the photographs on selling people's biometric data. Are
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  Speaker 2: you going to do any of the selling?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely not. This has been used solely as a tool
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  Speaker 3: to reduce violent and threatening behavior in our stores. So
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  Speaker 3: if someone comes into our stores, there is a very
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  Speaker 3: quick scan of the face. If there's any match to
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  Speaker 3: a person that's previously committed serious harm in our stores,
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  Speaker 3: then that's where we're using it. Otherwise the image is
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  Speaker 3: deleted and less than a blink of an eye. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: So for you know, most people coming into our stores
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  Speaker 3: this is you know, absolutely no harm whatsoever.
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  Speaker 2: Why do you engage a Maori digital sovereignty expert?
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  Speaker 3: Well, As I said, it's really important to us to
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  Speaker 3: take careful and considered approach to this, including governance of
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  Speaker 3: the whole program. So we worked with doctor Todu to
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  Speaker 3: make sure that our approach in terms of taking into
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  Speaker 3: accounts you know, cultural significance of biometric data, how our
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  Speaker 3: training is put together, and how we do respond you know,
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  Speaker 3: if any situation arose where there was a mistake made,
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  Speaker 3: that we made sure that we really know exactly what
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  Speaker 3: we're doing. So we wanted to make sure that it's
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  Speaker 3: a really robust process and takes all those things into
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  Speaker 3: account and engaged with our Maori community, both our team
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  Speaker 3: members and across New Zealand to understand where their concerns
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  Speaker 3: were and that we could make sure that our approach
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  Speaker 3: addressed those all.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Melissa, thank you very much for talking us through.
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  Speaker 2: That's Melissa Haynes, general manager of Bunnings here in New Zealand.
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