Quantcast
Channel: privacy – RCI | English
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 126

Privacy commissioners call facial recognition service illegal

0
0

Canada’s privacy commissioner and three of his provincial counterparts say a facial recognition tool sold by  technology company Clearview constitutes mass surveillance and is illegal in Canada. “It is an affront to individuals’ privacy rights and inflicts broad-based harm on all members of society, who find themselves continually in a police lineup. This is completely unacceptable,” said Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Clearview scrapes up billions of images of people from across the internet and uses it to help identify people. The software is sold to police services and companies, notably, the national police force, the RCMP and 47 other organizations in Canada. The commissioners say that is a clear violation of privacy rights guaranteed in Canadian law.

People posting photos to the internet do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, says Clearwater. (iStock)

No reasonable expectation of privacy, says company

In its defence, Clearview argues that people who put or permitted their images to be placed on the internet did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It holds that that information was publicly available so it was not required to obtain people’s consent. 

The commissioners reject the argument. They express concern that Clearview did not recognize that the mass collection of biometric information without people’s express consent violated the reasonable expectation of privacy and that the company felt its business interests outweighed privacy rights.

The commissioners listed many potential harms to individuals including the risk of misidentification and exposure to potential data breaches.

There are more than 19 million users of Facebook alone in Canada. People posting photos there and on other social media may not realize their photos can be scooped up by facial recognition technology. (iStock)

Clearview followed some but not all recommendations

The privacy authorities made several recommendations: “that Clearview stop offering its facial recognition services to Canadian clients; stop collecting images of individuals in Canada; and delete all previously collected images and biometric facial arrays of individuals in Canada.”

After the authorities’ investigation into the matter began, Clearview agreed that it would stop providing services in Canada. It stopped offering trial services to Canadian organizations and it stopped services to the only remaining subscriber, the RCMP in July 2020. However, the company did not show a willingness to accede to the other recommendations. 

The privacy authorities are asking the Canadian government to consider their findings as they review a proposed new law on private-sector privacy

In a separate but related investigation, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is examining the RCMP’s use of Clearwater’s facial recognition technology. It says it is developing guidance for law enforcement agencies on the use of this technology. Guidelines should be published in a few months and be available for public consultation. 


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 126

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images