Australians support facial recognition for government use, but not in shops and offices: survey

Despite facial biometrics being used in Australian retail stores, stadiums, casinos and the country’s digital identity program, almost three-quarters of Australians say they know little about the technology, according to a new study by researchers from Monash University and the Australian National University.

The study, titled “Australian public attitudes towards facial recognition technology,” found that support for facial recognition is mixed. Overall, 43.5 percent of respondents said they supported the general use of the technology, while 30.8 percent said they were somewhat or strongly opposed.

“There is a large group of undecided people in the middle, reflecting the relatively low knowledge of the technology in the community,” the study noted.

The highest public support (80.2%) was for use by emergency services workers to identify victims of disaster or war, followed by police to catch criminal suspects (75.2%). The police and healthcare sectors scored high on public trust. In comparison, retail outlets and tech companies such as Google and Facebook had the lowest trust, at 19% and 17% respectively. The strongest opposition was to deploying facial recognition to monitor people in shops and workplaces.

A majority of respondents (57 percent) support the use of facial recognition to access government services, which could provide a boost to the upcoming digital ID program. However, introducing facial biometrics into the program would need to convince almost a fifth (18 percent) of respondents who oppose such use.

Age verification for online gambling and pornography also received strong support, with 61% and 51% of respondents supporting it, respectively.

The survey was conducted with 2,006 respondents between April and May 2024. Overall, there is a strong feeling that facial recognition technology should not be used for commercial purposes, says lead researcher Mark Andrejevic, a professor at Monash University.

“People need to better understand how, why and where facial recognition systems work, how their personal data will be processed, used and stored, what risks they may face by participating, and what mechanisms hold the technology accountable,” Andrejevic says.

One of the key points for survey respondents was notice and consent, with 90 per cent of Australians saying they want to know when and where technology is being used, and be able to consent to its use.

On the positive side, most people (58.7 percent) find facial recognition accurate, with only 3.9 percent finding the technology inaccurate or very inaccurate.

Article Topics

Australia | biometric authentication | biometric identification | biometrics | facial biometrics | facial recognition