Latest / Best of Business / Julian Benefield: General Counsel for Foodstuffs North Island on supermarket facial recognition tech getting approval from the Privacy Commissioner

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Julian Benefield: General Counsel for Foodstuffs North Island on supermarket facial recognition tech getting approval from the Privacy Commissioner · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk said B.
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  Speaker 1: the drive, show you trust for the full picture? Heather
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  Speaker 1: Dupless and Drive with One New Zealand Let's Get Connected
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  Speaker 1: News Talk set B.
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  Speaker 2: Afternoon. The Privacy Commissioner has given the funds up to
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  Speaker 2: Foodstuff's facial recognition trial. He found the trial to be
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  Speaker 2: compliant with the Privacy Act and successful in reducing retail crime.
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  Speaker 2: Julian Benfield is the General Council for food Stuff. Say Julian, Hi, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: any idea how much crime you guys prevented?
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  Speaker 3: Look, you know, our priority has always been the safety
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  Speaker 3: of our team and customers, and the safety has been
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  Speaker 3: put at risk by high levels of retail crime. That's
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  Speaker 3: why we tried facial recognition in our stores to see
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  Speaker 3: whether it could help reduce harmon our people. Our trial
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  Speaker 3: has been a success found their ta anology was effective
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  Speaker 3: in reducing harm. Our independent evaluator found a sixteen percent
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  Speaker 3: reduction and serious harm incidents across the trial period and
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  Speaker 3: over one hundred serious incidents avoided through that trial period.
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  Speaker 3: Across the twenty five stores, so ultimately very pleased to
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  Speaker 3: see the outcome from the APC today.
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  Speaker 2: What happens now? Are you going to roll it out
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  Speaker 2: to all your stores?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we've worked constructively with the Privacy Commission for a
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  Speaker 3: long period of time, and ultimately we're very pleased with
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  Speaker 3: them finding that we've met privacy requirements as we've worked
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  Speaker 3: very hard on our privacy safeguards from here. We've received
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  Speaker 3: the report today, so we're going to take some time
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  Speaker 3: to digest their feedback. We love that they've mentioned all
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  Speaker 3: of the safeguards that we have placed. They have mentioned
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  Speaker 3: a few improvements that we will look at as well,
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  Speaker 3: So we will digest that report before we decide on
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  Speaker 3: next steps.
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  Speaker 2: Well, isn't it a no brainer? I mean, if it
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  Speaker 2: is preventing all of this crime, and there's plenty of
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  Speaker 2: retail crime around, why wouldn't you roll it out to
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  Speaker 2: all your stores?
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  Speaker 1: Yes?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this trial has shown that that facial recognition
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  Speaker 3: is effective in reducing harm by repeat defender's. Repeat defender's
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  Speaker 3: caused around a third of our incidents, and we've seen
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  Speaker 3: around five thousand retail crime incidents every quarter, so we think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it has been very effective in dealing with
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  Speaker 3: harm events. It's one of the most proactive tools in
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  Speaker 3: identifying crime and stopping it earlier on in the store journey.
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  Speaker 3: There is just a bit of detail on that report,
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  Speaker 3: and the OPC has recommended that we take on board
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  Speaker 3: that feedback before we consider a broader roll out. But
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  Speaker 3: we are heading that way and in the meantime we'll
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  Speaker 3: continue to use the technology and the twenty five stores
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  Speaker 3: that trialed.
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  Speaker 2: It is it pricey.
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  Speaker 3: Look, you know, we know we have made investments in
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  Speaker 3: this area because the safety of our team and customers
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  Speaker 3: is absolutely critical. Everyone in our stores deserves to return
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  Speaker 3: home safe every day, so we haven't really focused too
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  Speaker 3: much on the investment. What I would say though, is
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  Speaker 3: that there has been an incredible effort in consulting with
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  Speaker 3: the OPC and thinking about our systems and procedures. So
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  Speaker 3: there's been a huge amount of effort work to manage
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  Speaker 3: this technology responsibly.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Julian, thanks very much for your time. Julian Benefield,
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  Speaker 2: General counsel for Food Stuff's North Island.
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