If you’re one of the 8 million or so Australians who shop at Kmart every year, chances are you were being watched.

Not just by staff members or security, or even typical CCTV cameras, but by specialised facial recognition technology (FRT) that was rolled out into more than two dozen of the retailer’s stores between 2020 and 2022.

Every shopper who entered had their face scanned and stored in a system designed to catch refund fraudsters.

Kmart breached customers’ privacy by scanning their faces without consent, the privacy commissioner has found.Credit: Bloomberg

On Thursday, following a three-year investigation, Australia’s privacy commissioner ruled that the practice was in breach of the nation’s privacy laws, and thus illegal. It follows a similar finding against Bunnings – which has the same parent company, Wesfarmers – a decision under review by the Administrative Review Tribunal.

The rulings, while not carrying massive penalties or legal action – at least at this stage – sound a much larger warning in an era in which our faces and biometrics are being treated like raw data.

Kmart’s stated goal to stop fraudulent returns and related threats of violence. Kmart says its stores have been experiencing escalating incidents of theft, often accompanied by anti-social behaviour or violence.

Some will argue that if you’ve........

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