Revelations that major Australian retailers are using facial recognition technology on customers without consent only highlight the need for a major overhaul of Australia’s privacy laws, data privacy experts have warned.

Until Australia’s privacy regulator has enough resources to properly police the Privacy Act, and until breaches of the Act attract meaningful fines and not just “slaps on the wrist”, corporate boardrooms will continue to flout the law the way Wesfarmers and other retailers appear to be doing now, said Anna Johnston, a former Deputy Privacy Commissioner for NSW who now runs the consulting firm Salinger Privacy.