Woolworths customers are airing their concerns on TikTok after the supermarket giant installed more than 500 tiny cameras on the shelves of a store in western Sydney to “improve product availability”.
The store in Wetherill Park, near Fairfield, is part of a trial that was announced in June which involves “bite-sized” cameras clipped to the underside of shelves near price tags.
The cameras take photos of the shelves every hour, which Woolworths says alert staff of any items that need restocking. The company said earlier this year that shoppers who were in the frame of the photo would be blurred out from the picture, and that signage outside the store would make sure customers are informed of the change.
However, some customers online are feeling pretty distrustful about it all, given Woolworths’ recent introduction of cameras at self-checkouts, and the general increase of surveillance cameras in supermarkets to fight shoplifting during the cost of living crisis.
“Woolworths stepping up their anti-theft game,” one TikTok user accused in a video of the cameras.
“In the bread aisle makes it particularly dystopian,” a commenter on the video wrote.
Others in the comments also shared that they felt the cameras were a form of surveillance (which they are, though Woolworths insists this is of stock and not people).
One TikToker claimed the cameras were all at “eye level”, which made them feel uncomfortable.
“What are workers for?” they asked in response to the assertion that the cameras would be there to keep an eye on emptying shelves.
Concerns of surveillance in shopping centres have been an ongoing issue over the last two years with the normalisation of surveillance.
Just last year, Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys were investigated by the privacy commissioner after CHOICE learned they were using (and storing!) the unique biometric facial data of customers in their stores.
Experts slammed the trial of the AI, which has since been suspended, as “inappropriate” and “unnecessary”.
Samantha Floreani, a program lead for Digital Rights Watch, slammed the normalisation of all this surveillance to Guardian Australia earlier this year after the self-checkout drama.
“This kind of normalisation of surveillance makes space for the growing use of invasive technologies in everyday life to access everyday essential services,” she said.
“These technologies are framed as an improvement for customers, but in reality, it is punitive use of automation technology to cut costs on staffing for large corporations while treating every customer as a suspect.”
Woof.
Look, like we mentioned earlier, Woolworths previously said the cameras won’t be recording people’s identities.
PEDESTRIAN.TV reached out to Woolworths to ease consumer concerns, but a spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
