I spy with my 5 Eyes something beginning with 1984 – why NZ Cops have Supermarket mass surveillance
Lawyers challenge widespread police use of number-plate software as evidence
A lawyer has called on senior judges to denounce mass police use of a private software-and-camera system to identify car number plates.
Police tap the system run by Auckland company Auror 250,000 times a year – it is in common use outside big retailers and petrol stations .
A pre-trial hearing that began in the Court of Appeal in Wellington on Tuesday is the most significant challenge yet to how police increasingly rely on it to gather evidence and investigate.
Three appellants on property, burglary and disqualified driving charges say it should not have been used against them.
If the AI-enabled camera identification was ruled inadmissible, each case might well fall over, the court heard.
The Daily Blog has been following this case and the ongoing use of mass surveillance by NZ Supermarkets and we ask again, why the Christ are we allowing cops and Supermarkets this kind of unchecked mass surveillance?
Europe wouldn’t allow police surveillance like NZ’s, Privacy Commissioner lawyer says
A lawyer for the Privacy Commissioner has told the Court of Appeal that Europe would not allow the kind of police surveillance going on in New Zealand through a private number-plate spotting network.
But the Crown argued back that police had approached the use of automated number plate recognition, or ANPR, “with a great deal of care” and were always looking to tighten up its use to comply with statutory requirements.
Bullshit!
Police have used Kiwis apathy and distraction from this issue!
In NZ, we like our fascism casual.
We are so laid back as a culture we are horizontal.
Less Goose-stepping boots, more marching crocs.
The banality of evil that NZs mass surveillance represents is so twee it’s perfectly kiwi.
The vast power of the Supermarkets not only give them economic manipulation, they also have mass surveillance powers with their face recognition technology and external cameras tracking licence plates, so much so that the Cops have jumped in use of them for warrantless mass surveillance trawling…
Why more police are using number-plate spotting tech
Police say their rapidly rising use of number plate searching technology is mostly because more officers are doing it, and are more aware of being able to use it.
The number of searches by officers on two private companies’ automated number plate recognition systems rose from 64,000 in 2020 to almost 700,000 four years later.
A search of any vehicle’s number plate can find all records of it caught on CCTV cameras outside shops and public places going back 60 days.
Police did not provide evidence or make any claim that the rising use of the searches had cut crime.
…here are the little tech nark from Auror, who run the mass surveillance networks linked up to the Police in our Supermarket Duopoly, arguing why their mass surveillance is so important and how our civil liberties mean nothing…
Just because it happens in a shop doesn’t make it any less of a crime – Opinion
THREE KEY FACTS
- The Auror database of retail crime reports was highlighted in the case of former MP Golriz Ghahraman and a shopping incident at a Pak’nSave supermarket.
- Auror launched as a start-up in 2012, is now worth an estimated $500 million and has more than 50% of the retail market in Australia, a large and growing client base in the United States and strong interest in Britain.
- A Retail NZ survey found 92% of retailers contacted had experienced crime in the year to August 2023.
We have a serious, and often violent, retail crime issue in this country.
Almost 20% of all retail crime events in New Zealand last year involved verbal or physical abuse, intimidation, threats, or violence – and even the use of weapons.
The data is also clear – 10% of offenders are causing more than 60% of the harm. What’s worse is that those repeat offenders are four times more likely to be aggressive.
Some want us to think of this as a victimless crime, because it happens at a supermarket or a service station.
…what a load of emotionally manipulative bullshit.
Just because there are a few serious retail crime incidents, doesn’t mean we should allow the Supermarket Duopoly who have enormous power to run facial recognition software in real time for the Police without a search warrant!
The sanctimonious prick then attempts to defend the use of this mass surveillance power by using workers…
The reality is these incidents can have immeasurable impacts on frontline workers, the vibrancy of our community hubs and the social fabric of our nation. What’s more, we all take a financial hit in the cost of our goods, to make up for the more than $2 million a day that retail crime costs Kiwi businesses.
People are frontline workers, not corporate entities – your teenager in their first job, your 65-year-old grandmother who has spent decades working retail, and everyone in between.
…FFS.
People, read this…
Behind the empty shelves in Woolworths supermarkets across Victoria and New South Wales is a fraught battle between workers and employers that could affect the future of workplaces everywhere.
The dispute has been triggered by stalled enterprise bargaining negotiations between Woolworths and the United Workers Union.
A major factor involves Woolworths introducing a “coaching and productivity framework” to speed up work at distribution centres. This involves surveillance technology and monitoring to direct each worker’s movement and output.
Under this framework, so-called engineered standards or “pick rates” are designed to speed up work on the warehouse floor. Warehouse workers typically wear headsets through which they are told what items to pick and from where, via AI-generated algorithms.
…these very same surveillance technologies that are supposedly protecting workers are also being used to skin them into drones, don’t pretend to give a shit about the workers when it is this surveillance technology that is breaking them!
The little kiwi Tech Nark continues…
Claims of a “surveillance state” are flippant and outright wrong.
…stop right there, that’s a fucking lie!
- The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is seeking information about a shopping incident involving ex-MP.
- The move follows Herald reporting that police attempted to use the incident in a High Court appeal.
- Australian Senator warns of creeping surveillance by private companies.
Auror has also been subject to concern over the degree to which it intrudes on the privacy of others and its relationship with law enforcement.
In 2022, the Herald revealed police had invented crimes to get around Auror’s rules so officers could track cars using its automatic licence plate recognition system. The Herald also revealed police went into what Auror calls a “partnership” without carrying out a proper privacy assessment.
It has also been revealed that neither police or privacy officials have any idea how many CCTV cameras are linked to the Auror network.
In Australia, Senator for New South Wales David Shoebridge raised concerns about Auror after it was revealed Australian Federal Police had signed up to the system – like New Zealand police – without doing proper privacy checks.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner told the Herald it had opened an investigation into Auror in February 2024. It was not currently investigating the company but “have provided guidance to Auror to assist it in meeting its privacy obligations”.
The spokeswoman said the advice was “particularly as to whether the collection of personal information is necessary to its business and reasonable steps to notify individuals, or ensure awareness, of” the collection of people’s information.
Shoebridge, whose portfolios include digital rights and justice, told the Herald his concerns remained with systems similar to Auror shown to have issues with accuracy and confidentiality.
“One of the real dangers in this space about online data and facial recognition is this push by those who are trying to profit from it that it is inevitable, that we have to give up on any kind of privacy. That’s patently false. This is not inevitable.”
Shoebridge said Australians and New Zealanders “should be able to go about their daily lives without being secretly surveilled by private entities and the state”.
On Auror’s claim of covering 90% of retail space, he said: “It’s like a private surveillance state that is largely unregulated and would be tracking New Zealanders multiple times a day.”
…the rest of the Tech Narks argument is self aggrandising garbage made by someone who has never had their power challenged before because Kiwis are so pathetic at standing up for their own rights.
Why the Christ have we allowed Supermarkets to have more mass surveillance powers than the Police?
Supermarkets and access to them are a necessity as a part of our food supply chain.
Yes shoplifters and abusive customers are not acceptable, but cutting them from accessing food is more unacceptable!
Why have we allowed Food Corporations so much power, including filming us? They have an obligation as part of our food supply chain that goes beyond thieves, so why are we allowing them to use theft as a means to spy on us in their shops?
Fight back by always stealing groceries through the self check out.
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Sounds like records of what searches have been run are kept, and your license plate record being searched would seem to be private personal information under the Privacy Act.
Can’t hurt to send a Privacy Act request to Auror asking for any information they hold about you, including your car’s license number and any searches for it.
https://www.auror.co/privacy
If they have any information about you or your vehicle, ask that it be deleted. Make these scum scream. Do it all again next month.
There is definately a lot to find out about this subject. I like all the points you made
Really enjoyed reading through this post! Well done
Don’t shop at New World
During the pandemic New World Papakura had three security guards stationed at the entry, demanding that everyone queing to remove their masks before being allowed into the supermarket so the New World security cameras could record their faces, when I was asked to remove my facemask, I refused. The security guard asked why. I asked him to remove his facemask, he refused.
The security guard called the manager, who called the cops, three cops arrived and demanded I take off my mask to allow the cameras to record my face. I refused. The New World manager then issused me with a trespass notice and handed a copy to the police. Under the threat that if I returned to shop at New World I would be arrested.
There is only one way to beat this sort of enforced surveilance thuggery, and police compliance, that is for everyone to shop at New World wear a mask and refuse to remove it. The cops will soon get tired of being New World’s surveilance enforcers.
Based. Say what you like about Countdown, my local ones were generally fine with people wearing facemasks, respirators, gas masks, shemaghs all through the period before Ardern stopped admitting COVID was a problem.
Good one Pat. It takes effort determination and time to stand up to these more than petty intrusions by the powerful on supposedly free citizens.
That is truely shocking.