(Ottawa) A coalition pushing for better regulation of facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies says the federal government’s privacy bill is ‘in dire need of significant amendments’ “.
In an open letter addressed Wednesday to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, the Right2YourFace Coalition warns that the use of facial recognition technology threatens human rights, principles of fairness and fundamental freedoms, including the right to privacy.
Facial recognition tools can be used to compare the image of a person’s face to a photo database in order to identify the individual. The coalition says the technology can lead to biased or erroneous results, creating a risk of false identifications.
The letter is signed by representatives of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the Canadian Privacy and Access Council and several others.
The coalition says Bill C-27, currently before Parliament, fails to address the harms posed by facial recognition tools as companies and government agencies adopt artificial intelligence (AI) systems at an increasingly rapid pace.
“AI is neither artificial nor intelligent, and its use is largely unregulated,” said Sharon Polsky of the Privacy and Access Council at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Research has repeatedly confirmed that facial recognition results are unreliable, and yet hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year by municipalities, airports, retailers, schools and, of course, law enforcement, which is increasingly integrating AI and facial recognition systems for greater security. »
Profit over privacy?
The Liberals introduced privacy legislation last year to give Canadians more control over how their personal data is used by commercial entities. The bill would also impose fines on non-compliant organizations and introduce new rules for the use of artificial intelligence.
The coalition is concerned about the lack of discussion about the bill’s “troubling implications for facial recognition,” said Daniel Konikoff, interim director of the privacy, technology and surveillance program at the Association. Canadian Civil Liberties.
The letter says the privacy section of the bill should include special provisions for sensitive information and explicitly provide enhanced protection of biometric details, such as facial data, fingerprints and voice patterns, which may implicate particular risks of racial and gender bias.
The coalition is concerned that a provision in the bill allowing the collection of information for legitimate commercial purposes without the user’s knowledge or consent is too broad, prioritizing profit over privacy.
The government says elements of the AI bill aim to protect Canadians by ensuring high-impact AI systems are developed and deployed in ways that identify, assess and reduce risks of harm and bias .
The bill would also create an AI and Data Commissioner to monitor company compliance, order third-party audits and share information with other regulators.
The coalition is concerned that the bill has no definition of what is considered high impact, leaving what it sees as a crucial step to regulation. A definition of high-impact systems, including facial recognition technology and other biometric identification tools, must be included in the bill itself, the letter said.
Last month, Mr. Champagne wrote to the House of Commons committee on industry and technology, which is studying the bill, to say that the government was prepared to work with MPs to develop amendments to define categories of high-impact systems.
Among the categories Mr. Champagne proposes to include is the use of AI to process biometric information for the purpose of identifying a person without their consent, or to determine the behavior or state of mind of a person. an individual.
The coalition has not seen “what these concrete amendments would look like,” Mr. Konikoff said.
“The devil is in the details, but we have no details here,” he lamented.
Moratorium
In October last year, the Commons Committee on Information, Privacy and Ethics called for a moratorium on the use of facial recognition tools by federal police and Canadian businesses unless permission from the court or input from the privacy watchdog.
The committee also urged the government to develop a regulatory framework regarding uses, prohibitions, monitoring and privacy of the emerging tool.