A tool too good to be honest

In October 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police bought two licences for facial recognition software from Clearview AI, a company whose database was built by copying billions of photos from the Internet. According to the special report of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, tabled in Parliament on June 10, 2021, the company recorded 521 searches made from RCMP accounts. At least 19 accounts existed, 17 of them free trial accounts.

Only about 6% of these searches appear to be linked to victim identification work by the national child exploitation centre. About 85% are not accounted for in any way. The Commissioner concluded that the RCMP had contravened the Privacy Act: a public body cannot collect information from a third party that itself obtained it illegally. The RCMP disputes this conclusion but accepted all the recommendations; it also created a program to assess new technologies before using them.

The Commissioner also points out that facial recognition can produce racially biased results. In May 2022, the federal, provincial and territorial commissioners jointly called for a legal framework setting clear limits for police, with "no-go zones" to prevent mass surveillance.

Admitting a mistake, listening to those who report it, changing its practices: this is how an institution regains the trust of everyone it serves.