The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP, Federal Police) violated the law using controversial facial recognition technology from the US company Clearview AI, according to an investigative report released Thursday, June 10 by the Canadian Life Protection Commission private.
Read also: Facial recognition: for better or for worse
The RCMP "broke
public sector law (the Privacy Act) when it collected personal information from Clearview,
" said Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada. "
A federal institution cannot collect personal information from a third party if the latter has collected it illegally,
" said Daniel Therrien during a press briefing, basing his conclusions on the use of 521 searches carried out by the GRC with Clearview AI. "
The use of facial recognition technology by the RCMP to search huge repositories of data on Canadians not suspected of criminal acts constitutes a significant invasion of privacy,
”he said.
Technology used for several months
In addition, the Canadian regulator is concerned that the RCMP did not agree with the conclusion that they had violated the law. According to the police, it is not their responsibility to ensure that the database used is compiled legally. However, my Office notes that the RCMP agreed to implement its recommendations “
despite this fundamental disagreement
”. In particular, it recommends that it set up a training program on the limits of the collection of personal information.
The RCMP had previously admitted that it had used this technology, which can help locate strangers, for several months in the context of investigations into cases of sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
She stopped using it in July 2020, when the company stopped offering its services in Canada.
Read also: Facial recognition: a group of NGOs attacks Clearview AI in five European countries
The publication of this investigation follows another report released in February, in which my office concluded that Clearview AI, which developed controversial facial recognition technology, carried out
illegal "
mass surveillance
" in Canada
. This previous investigation had established that Canadian police forces and private sector organizations had access to this technology, allowing them to search from a database of "
more than three billion images of faces
”collected without the consent of individuals.
