Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

A new paper I’ve written looks at Foodstuffs South Island’s facial recognition trial in Christchurch and raises serious questions about who bears the risk.

The three trial stores sit in suburbs where Māori and Pacific populations are well below the city average. The stores excluded from the trial are in the suburbs with the highest Māori and Pacific communities. International research shows facial recognition systems produce false positive rates up to 100 times higher for Indigenous and Pacific peoples than for European populations. Add New Zealand’s documented history of unlawful police surveillance targeting Māori youth, and the potential for compounded harm in any system expansion is significant.

The Privacy Impact Assessment contains no demographic bias testing on New Zealand populations. No plan to monitor false positive rates by ethnicity. No meaningful consultation with Māori data sovereignty experts.

Before this technology expands, we need independent bias testing, transparent reporting, and genuine Māori partnership in governance and not just notification after the fact.

Full paper available here.