(Ottawa) Three provincial privacy watchdogs have ordered facial recognition company Clearview AI to stop collecting, using and disclosing images of people without their consent.
Privacy authorities in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec are also demanding that the US firm remove images and biometric data collected without the permission of individuals.
The orders released Tuesday follow a joint investigation by the three provincial privacy authorities and the office of Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien.
Organizations – including the Commission on Access to Information (CAI) – have discovered that Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology leads to mass surveillance of Canadians and violates federal and provincial privacy laws.
They said the New York-based company’s collection of billions of images of people on the internet was a gross violation of the privacy rights of Canadians.
Clearview AI technology enables the collection of images from a variety of sources that can help law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and other customers identify individuals.