Claims it was just spotting shoppers who threatened staff at Bluey's favorite big box store Australian hardware chain Bunnings Warehouse will challenge a ruling by local regulators who found it violated shoppers' privacy by checking their identities with facial recognition tech.

The Privacy Commissioner finds Bunnings Warehouse interfered with the privacy of its customers by using facial recognition without consent in 63 of its stores over a three-year period.

An investigation has found that Bunnings breached customers' privacy by using facial recognition technology without adequate consent.

Bunnings’ managing director Mike Schneider said the company believed its use of facial recognition “balanced our privacy obligations and the need to protect our team, customers, and suppliers against the ongoing and increasing exposure to violent and organised crime, perpetrated by a small number of known and repeat offenders”.

Wesfarmers-owned Bunnings, the country's biggest home improvement chain, breached the privacy of thousands of customers by using facial recognition technology without gaining consent, an Australian watchdog has found.

Bunnings’ use of facial recognition technology breached the Privacy Act, a commission has ruled, but the retail giant says it will fight the ruling.

The landmark ruling found Bunnings had taken customers' private information without consent, failed to take steps to notify them and had left gaping holes in its privacy policy.

Bunnings has been found to have invaded the privacy of what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of customers through the use of “intrusive” facial recognition cameras at 63 stores across Victoria and NSW.