Business racing to use facial recognition technology, raising concerns the law is too slow to catch up

The rollout of facial recognition technology in all New South Wales pubs and clubs shows how business is forging ahead collecting biometric information before the law has had a chance to catch up, experts warn.

The NSW government this week introduced new laws allowing the use of facial recognition throughout pubs and clubs, despite not yet developing rules to guide the rollout.

Those regulations, though, are yet to be developed, something Kate Bower, a consumer data advocate from Choice, said was the key issue.

Despite Clubs saying the technology in this case was being employed as a harm-reduction measure, Bower said the lack of transparency around its use meant it was impossible to know what safeguards were in place.

Last month Davis, together with the former head of the Australian Human Rights commission, Edward Santow, released a new report calling for a model law to deal with the expansion of the technology.

Under the model law, companies or government agencies which use facial recognition technology would need to assess the human rights risk, and show why the technology was necessary.

In the case of gambling harm-minimisation, Bower said, it was unclear why the facial recognition technology was needed.