Latest news with #PhilPennington
Otago Daily Times
15-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Large retailers support facial recognition technology in stores
By Phil Pennington of RNZ The heads of a dozen of the largest retailers and telcos in the country have come out in strong support of using facial recognition technology in their stores. This follows the Privacy Commissioner giving a "cautious tick" to a trial in New World and Pak'nSave supermarkets. "The undersigned major New Zealand retailers strongly support the use of fair and accurate technology to protect our workers and customers," said a statement at industry group Retail NZ's website. Without saying when they might start using it, they stated they would work now to develop "best practice". "We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way." The letter was signed by the heads of Briscoes and Rebel Sport, Bunnings and Mitre 10, Michael Hill Jewellers, Farmers and The Warehouse, the two Foodstuffs supermarket groups in the two islands as well as rival Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. Concern lingers over privacy of shoppers Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster had said his report was "not a green light for more general use of FRT" (facial recognition technology). "However, we recognise the importance of the issue for many businesses." The trial let other businesses ask themselves the right questions about whether to use FRT and in what ways to protect privacy, Webster said. There were significant caveats. "While the percentage of misidentifications may be small, rolling FRT out at scale would mean that large numbers of people would be misidentified." Foodstuffs North Island's own research suggested 900 shoppers a year could be misidentified in its stores alone. The commissioner suggested raising the algorithm accuracy from 90 percent to 92.5 percent, among other measures. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets. This was "given the vital role of supermarkets in providing access to food, the current supermarket duopoly which means there are limited alternative options for people who are barred from entry, and the concern that the whole population of Aotearoa will be subjected to surveillance in supermarkets in order to reduce instances of harmful behaviour by a small minority of customers". How does it work? Retail NZ's Carolyn Young said for someone to be on the watchlist, they had to have offended and/or been abusive and/or aggressive in store and trespassed. If someone was trespassed from a retail environment, they currently are not able to return to that store for two years. "What we know in retail is that recidivous offending is very high - between 35-50 percent (depending on the sector) of offending is done by recidivous offending. "So we know that even though someone has been trespassed, they continue to come back into store," Young said. "FRT will enable stores to identify these individuals as they enter store to ensure that the store is safe for staff and customers. "FRT does not enable customers to be monitored. It takes an image of people as they enter the store and if they are not on the watchlist, then they are deleted immediately. "FRT does not provide ongoing monitoring throughout the store, just one photo/image as someone enters." The big-store signatories said they acknowledged the commissioner's oversight, and Foodstuffs for leading the way with its trial. "The use of FRT in the right settings with the right controls will provide positive benefits and outcomes for customers, retailers and workers, while not impeding on the privacy of New Zealanders. "The vast majority of customers will be able to go about their business as usual and will in fact be safer in those stores where FRT is used," the Retail NZ statement said. Webster also stressed it would be "highly desirable" to do training of the FRT algorithms on New Zealanders' faces, by consent, to cut down the risk of bias and inaccuracy. Very limited such testing by the Department of Internal Affairs last year found the imported tech it is currently using was accurate. What happens overseas? Many multiple FRT systems are on offer that return different rates of accuracy in independent tests by the US-based benchmarking agency. In Australia, Bunnings had been in a legal fight with a watchdog that asserted its facial recognition there impinged on people's privacy. Reports of the tech being used at supermarkets in an isolated way in New Zealand date back to at least 2018. Researchers foresaw the tech spread in 2021. "Private sector use of FRT-enabled surveillance is likely to increase, particularly in the retail sector, especially as these services come 'baked-in' to vendor offerings," their landmark report for police said. That contributed to police deciding not to use FRT on live camera feeds, a constraint they say they have stuck with till now. In Britain, the tech's spread, for example in airports and shopping centres, prompted the government's biometrics ethics group in 2021 to recommend oversight by an independent ethics group including of collaborative FRT use between retail and police. Young said Britain was a long way ahead of New Zealand in terms of the implementation of FRT and had used CCTV actively in the community for many years. Here, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) would carry out the role of oversight, she said. "It may be in the future that there is a need for another regulatory body to do this work, but while we are in our infancy of implementation and the OPC has been very clear about how it is to be rolled out, we believe that the parameters for implementation are very clear." The Privacy Commissioner's report does not contain a similar recommendation. It mentioned Foodstuffs auditing how it compiled watchlists of people for the camera-software to look out for, but not that this should be independent. The signed Retail NZ statement did not mention independent overview. Australia's privacy regulator signalled in March it would be proactive in regulating biometric information. Biometrics include face, fingerprint and iris - unique identifiers of who a person is. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - it had taken on Bunnings, which was appealing - put this in a wider frame: "Our research told us that more than a quarter of Australians feel that facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks faced today, and only three percent of Australians think it's fair and reasonable for retailers to require their biometric information when accessing their services". "Thinking about what the law permits, but also what the community would expect" was critical.
Otago Daily Times
15-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Facial recognition technology supported by big name retailers
By Phil Pennington of RNZ The heads of a dozen of the largest retailers and telcos in the country have come out in strong support of using facial recognition technology in their stores. This follows the Privacy Commissioner giving a "cautious tick" to a trial in New World and Pak'nSave supermarkets. "The undersigned major New Zealand retailers strongly support the use of fair and accurate technology to protect our workers and customers," said a statement at industry group Retail NZ's website. Without saying when they might start using it, they stated they would work now to develop "best practice". "We recognise that technology must be used in a fair and accurate way." The letter was signed by the heads of Briscoes and Rebel Sport, Bunnings and Mitre 10, Michael Hill Jewellers, Farmers and The Warehouse, the two Foodstuffs supermarket groups in the two islands as well as rival Woolworths, and telcos One NZ and Spark. Concern lingers over privacy of shoppers Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster had said his report was "not a green light for more general use of FRT" (facial recognition technology). "However, we recognise the importance of the issue for many businesses." The trial let other businesses ask themselves the right questions about whether to use FRT and in what ways to protect privacy, Webster said. There were significant caveats. "While the percentage of misidentifications may be small, rolling FRT out at scale would mean that large numbers of people would be misidentified." Foodstuffs North Island's own research suggested 900 shoppers a year could be misidentified in its stores alone. The commissioner suggested raising the algorithm accuracy from 90 percent to 92.5 percent, among other measures. A Māori Reference Panel set up at the end of 2024 told the commissioner it opposed FRT's use in supermarkets. This was "given the vital role of supermarkets in providing access to food, the current supermarket duopoly which means there are limited alternative options for people who are barred from entry, and the concern that the whole population of Aotearoa will be subjected to surveillance in supermarkets in order to reduce instances of harmful behaviour by a small minority of customers". How does it work? Retail NZ's Carolyn Young said for someone to be on the watchlist, they had to have offended and/or been abusive and/or aggressive in store and trespassed. If someone was trespassed from a retail environment, they currently are not able to return to that store for two years. "What we know in retail is that recidivous offending is very high - between 35-50 percent (depending on the sector) of offending is done by recidivous offending. "So we know that even though someone has been trespassed, they continue to come back into store," Young said. "FRT will enable stores to identify these individuals as they enter store to ensure that the store is safe for staff and customers. "FRT does not enable customers to be monitored. It takes an image of people as they enter the store and if they are not on the watchlist, then they are deleted immediately. "FRT does not provide ongoing monitoring throughout the store, just one photo/image as someone enters." The big-store signatories said they acknowledged the commissioner's oversight, and Foodstuffs for leading the way with its trial. "The use of FRT in the right settings with the right controls will provide positive benefits and outcomes for customers, retailers and workers, while not impeding on the privacy of New Zealanders. "The vast majority of customers will be able to go about their business as usual and will in fact be safer in those stores where FRT is used," the Retail NZ statement said. Webster also stressed it would be "highly desirable" to do training of the FRT algorithms on New Zealanders' faces, by consent, to cut down the risk of bias and inaccuracy. Very limited such testing by the Department of Internal Affairs last year found the imported tech it is currently using was accurate. What happens overseas? Many multiple FRT systems are on offer that return different rates of accuracy in independent tests by the US-based benchmarking agency. In Australia, Bunnings had been in a legal fight with a watchdog that asserted its facial recognition there impinged on people's privacy. Reports of the tech being used at supermarkets in an isolated way in New Zealand date back to at least 2018. Researchers foresaw the tech spread in 2021. "Private sector use of FRT-enabled surveillance is likely to increase, particularly in the retail sector, especially as these services come 'baked-in' to vendor offerings," their landmark report for police said. That contributed to police deciding not to use FRT on live camera feeds, a constraint they say they have stuck with till now. In Britain, the tech's spread, for example in airports and shopping centres, prompted the government's biometrics ethics group in 2021 to recommend oversight by an independent ethics group including of collaborative FRT use between retail and police. Young said Britain was a long way ahead of New Zealand in terms of the implementation of FRT and had used CCTV actively in the community for many years. Here, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) would carry out the role of oversight, she said. "It may be in the future that there is a need for another regulatory body to do this work, but while we are in our infancy of implementation and the OPC has been very clear about how it is to be rolled out, we believe that the parameters for implementation are very clear." The Privacy Commissioner's report does not contain a similar recommendation. It mentioned Foodstuffs auditing how it compiled watchlists of people for the camera-software to look out for, but not that this should be independent. The signed Retail NZ statement did not mention independent overview. Australia's privacy regulator signalled in March it would be proactive in regulating biometric information. Biometrics include face, fingerprint and iris - unique identifiers of who a person is. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - it had taken on Bunnings, which was appealing - put this in a wider frame: "Our research told us that more than a quarter of Australians feel that facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks faced today, and only three percent of Australians think it's fair and reasonable for retailers to require their biometric information when accessing their services". "Thinking about what the law permits, but also what the community would expect" was critical.
Scoop
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Judith Collins Tells Security Summit NZ Setting Up Space Squadron
Phil Pennington The Defence Minister has told a security summit New Zealand is setting up a space squadron against a backdrop of rising threats. Judith Collins told the high level Shangri-La inter-governmental conference in Singapore the Air Force's 62 Squadron would be reactivated. She also told the summit that as New Zealand doubled its defence spending, "We need to ensure that we are building capabilities that are effective into the future and this is particularly true for the domains of space, cyber and undersea warfare." In World War Two 62 Squadron ran radar operations in the Pacific in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, including in the Guadacanal campaign. "The 21st century 62 Squadron will again turn to the skies, it's just going to be a little bit higher this time," Collins said, appearing on a panel talking about cyber, undersea and space challenges. Reuters previously reported the squadron would be reactivated in July with 15 personnel in what was a symbolic step to formalise the significance of the space work the Air Force was already doing. Collins told the summit New Zealand was also working with its partners to "leverage out launch capabilities and our other unique advantages such as a lack of immediate neighbours, to support our shared security interests". The United States recently confirmed it was in talks with several partner countries, including New Zealand, about the potential for more military satellite launches in future - though Collins had said she was not "directly" engaged with that, and the NZ Defence Force said launch contracts were a matter for the US and private company Rocket Lab that has spaceports at Mahia and in the US. "No nation can work on space alone," Collins told the summit, while pointing out "we beat Russia" for the number of rocket launches last year. Transparency around space, cyber and undersea developments was key to avoid misunderstandings, she said. China's senior colonel Shen Zhixiong said the militarisation of space and other emerging technology domains had accelerated, undermining collective security, asking the panel how the international community should resolve that. Collins herself had noted New Zealand's reliance as a small state on a rules-based order. Also, she noted satellites were increasingly crucial and "increasingly attractive targets for hostile action" despite the big downsides of using weapons in space. She singled out Russia, and claims from US lawmakers that Moscow was developing a nuclear weapon for use in space, for special mention. The $12 billion defence capability plan that covered till 2029, and aimed by 2032 to double New Zealand defence spending, would make the NZDF "increasingly lethal", she told the summit. The plan featured investment in space systems (up to $600m by 2029), cyber (up to $300m) and "for the very first time" in maritime surface and subsea drones (up to $100m) to surveil what was happening in New Zealand's vast ocean surrounds, she said. However, Budget 2025 provided only $30m for space shared with a range of other "small-scale" projects; it had no funding for maritime drones, only for aerial counter-drone systems. There was an undisclosed amount for "an initial uplift to the defensive cyber capabilities" from 2025-29, Budget 2025 said. A lot of money is still having to be poured into conventional kit - replacing both the Navy's maritime helicopters, and the old, breakdown-prone two 757 planes operated by the Air Force.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
No money in Budget for 'key' drone
Last week's Budget had nothing in it for a key type of drone the government says is crucial to transforming the navy. Phil Pennington spoke to Corin Dann. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Defence Force could get more 'killer drones'
By Phil Pennington of RNZ The Budget shows the Defence Force's growing push into the drone warfare will focus first on "counter-drone" systems. This is one of about a dozen initiatives in the Budget signalled already in the Defence Capability Plan last month. All up, there is $4.2 billion in capital and operating funding for the initiatives, most of it being spent over four years, although, in many cases, just how this is divvied up is withheld due to commercial sensitivities. The government already signalled the NZDF could get more 'killer' drones, to add to its existing small stable of surveillance drones. However, the Budget documents referred instead to a counter-uncrewed aerial system that "can be set up in fixed locations and is able to disable drones". Companies in Australia have been working on these, and they have become a fixture in the Ukraine-Russia war. The projects under the Defence Capability Plan dominate the Budget: The biggest capital spend over the four years, as signalled, is to replace eight old maritime helicopters with five new ones - no new details are forthcoming on that. An upgrade of anti-armour Javelin weapons and replacing the two old 757s that are routinely experiencing embarrassing breakdowns, make the list. The Javelins would allow defence to engage tanks "at longer ranges". However, there is no mention of other new missile strike capability, though both the DCP and Defence Minister Judith Collins have repeatedly referred to getting new missiles. There is also no mention of spending on space capabilities, which the DCP had envisaged hundreds of millions going towards. Large sums are set aside with $60 million a year for maintaining the air force's capability, $50 million for the army and $39 million for the navy. Defence Minister Judith Collins said earlier a key constraint on the extra spending is having the personnel to handle that. The Budget provides $8 million for pay rises per year for civilian personnel, and $38 million a year for military allowances (these range up to about $100 a day for uniformed staff in the field or at sea). Savings include $13 million from 2024-27 on the army's new Bushmasters getting high-tech communications installed. These vehicles would likely be crucial for any peacekeeping in Ukraine. The project had been rephased, the Budget said, but it is not clear what that means. There is $16 million across four years for the project to fix many leaky and substandard homes for personnel; and $25 million to planning and design to revamp the Devonport Naval base. Unlike the UK that slashed its international aid budget to fund more defence spending, the Budget maintains the foreign aid budget at about what it was - $1 billion a year. The Budget halves the amount that had been going into a special climate aid fund, reducing it from $200 million a year to $100 million, and also expands what that money can be spent on. This fund had faced a cut-off in January.
