Coles, Palantir, and Cameras at Coorparoo

12 September 2026

There is a growing question for Coles customers and workers at the Coorparoo Coles: what surveillance technology is operating inside the store, what information is being collected, and who has access to it?

The questions have become particularly relevant following Coles’ three-year partnership with the US data-analytics company Palantir.

In February 2024, Palantir announced that Coles Supermarkets would deploy Palantir platforms across all 850-plus Coles stores in Australia. Palantir said the system would be used across store operations and workforce strategy, integrating Coles’ existing data systems with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The scale of the data involved was enormous. Palantir said its system would work with more than 10 billion rows of data, including information relating to individual stores, team members, shifts and staff allocations.

The Coles store at Coorparoo is at 252 Old Cleveland Road, meaning it was within the nationwide network covered by Palantir’s announced deployment.

Camera surveillance throughout the store

Workers at the Coorparoo store have been aware of camera surveillance and extensive use of monitoring equipment throughout the store.

This includes cameras positioned at the self-service checkouts, as well as cameras and other equipment mounted in the ceilings over the various aisles.

The aisle cameras appear to have functions extending beyond conventional security surveillance. Their positioning allows the store to monitor customer movements and preferences, while also potentially observing how workers arrange, replenish and stack merchandise on the shelves.

This raises an obvious question: how much information about customers and workers is being generated by this surveillance system, and what is done with it?

At the self-service checkouts, Coles has used cameras positioned above the checkout area. These cameras are directed towards customers and the checkout process and have been associated with Coles’ efforts to detect and deter shoplifting.

Coles’ own privacy policy acknowledges that the company collects audio and video footage captured in its stores and facilities, including information collected through CCTV and other monitoring technologies.

Palantir and the surveillance question

The important point is that the existence of Coles’ camera surveillance should not automatically be equated with the Palantir system.

There is strong documentary evidence that Palantir was deployed throughout the Coles supermarket network. Palantir itself announced the deployment to more than 850 stores and described the processing of more than 10 billion rows of Coles data.

However, there is currently no public evidence establishing that the camera feeds from the Coorparoo store’s checkouts or aisle cameras were directly fed into Palantir.

That distinction is important.

Coles has said that Palantir was used for operational purposes including workforce rostering, store operations, bakery production, supply-chain planning and other business analytics. Coles has also rejected suggestions that Palantir was being used to conduct customer surveillance.

But the existence of a separate camera-surveillance system does not make the broader questions disappear.

What information do these cameras generate? Where is it stored? Who can access it? Is artificial intelligence being used to analyse it? And is any of this information connected with other Coles data systems?

Workers kept in the dark

Workers spoken to at the Coorparoo store say they have long been aware of the extensive camera surveillance and monitoring equipment in the store, but have not been given a clear explanation by management about the full extent or purpose of the systems.

The concern is not only that cameras exist.

The concern is the scale and sophistication of the surveillance — cameras at checkouts, cameras positioned throughout the aisles, and other equipment capable of monitoring activity throughout the store.

The technology potentially allows Coles to observe not only whether someone is stealing but also where customers go, what they look at, what they buy, how they move through the store and how workers perform their tasks.

That is a much broader question than conventional shop-security CCTV.

Palantir partnership now ending

The issue has acquired additional significance because Coles has now said it will not extend its Palantir contract beyond 2027.

Recent reporting says Coles regards the Palantir technology as having delivered value in areas including rostering, store operations and supply-chain planning.

The end of the partnership does not, however, answer questions about the surveillance systems currently operating in individual stores.

Nor does it explain what happened to the enormous quantities of data processed during the partnership.

The unanswered questions

For customers and workers at Coorparoo, some straightforward questions remain:

How many cameras are operating throughout the store?

What exactly do the checkout and aisle cameras record?

Are they simply security cameras, or are they being used to analyse customer behaviour and preferences?

Are the cameras being used to monitor how workers stock and arrange merchandise?

Is artificial intelligence being used to analyse the images?

Where is the resulting data stored?

Who has access to it?

How long is it retained?

Is surveillance information connected with customer, payment or loyalty-program information?

And was any camera or other surveillance data ever incorporated into the Palantir system?

These questions deserve clear answers from Coles.

The issue is not whether Coles uses surveillance technology.

It does.

The issue is how extensive that surveillance is, what it is being used to learn about customers and workers, how the resulting information is combined with Coles’ other data, and how much those being watched are actually told about it.

For a company operating hundreds of supermarkets and handling information about millions of Australians, transparency should not be optional.

Ian Curr, Editor WBT, 12 September 2026