Bunnings tribunal win allows facial recognition CCTV to combat retail crime and protect staffAndrew HedgmanNewsWireThu, 5 February 2026 3:02PM
Bunnings has won a landmark ruling allowing it to use facial recognition technology in its stores, a controversial move aimed at protecting staff and customers from violence, abuse, and theft.
The decision comes after the hardware giant was previously found to have breached privacy laws during a three-year trial of the system across some of its stores.
The Administrative Review Tribunal partially overturned a 2024 decision by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), allowing Bunnings to deploy facial recognition CCTV without consent, but only for the limited purpose of preventing crime and safeguarding people in stores.
Bunnings managing director Mike Schneider said the company’s intent in trialling the technology was to “help protect people from violence, abuse, serious criminal conduct and organised retail crime.”
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“The tribunal recognised the need for practical, commonsense steps to keep people safe,” Mr Schneider said.
“It also identified areas where we didn’t get everything right, including around signage, customer information, processes and our privacy policy, and we accept that feedback.”
The tribunal acknowledged that Bunnings faced “a very real and serious problem of violence and theft in its stores” and found the company had acted reasonably in implementing the system.
Between November 2018 and November 2021, the chain trialled facial recognition CCTV across 62 NSW and Victorian stores to identify repeat offenders known to have committed theft or violence against staff.
Under the system, facial images of everyone entering a store were converted into a digital vector set and compared to a database of known offenders.
If no match was found, the image was immediately discarded, often within just 0.00417 seconds. If a match was made, an alert was triggered for staff to take appropriate action.
The tribunal found Bunnings’ approach “limited the impact on privacy so as not to be disproportionate when considered against the benefits of providing a safer environment for staff and customers.”
It also noted that the company reasonably believed that collecting sensitive information could assist in preventing repeat incidents of violence, abuse, and theft.
However, the ruling did uphold privacy concerns raised by the OAIC, confirming that Bunnings failed to properly inform customers about the technology during its trial.
The company did not adequately update its privacy policies to explain the collection, use, and storage of personal information, nor did it provide sufficient signage to alert shoppers.
The OAIC said it would “carefully consider the tribunal’s decision,” noting it could be appealed, and highlighted that the Privacy Act provides strong protections for individuals, particularly in the context of emerging technologies.
The tribunal ruling underlines the growing tension between privacy rights and the use of advanced technology for security purposes.
Bunnings previously paused its facial recognition program while the investigation was underway.
During that time, video footage released by the OAIC revealed customers threatening staff with weapons and physically attacking employees, highlighting the “serious” safety issues the company faced.
Bunnings has defended its actions, stating the technology was aimed at protecting staff from “a small number of known and repeat offenders”, and said the tribunal’s decision confirmed that such measures were justified given the significant risk posed by repeat offenders to both staff and customers.
Originally published as Bunnings tribunal win allows facial recognition CCTV to combat retail crime and protect staff
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