Facial recognition in malls violated privacy, commissioners say

An investigation into the use of facial recognition technology to analyze age and gender of customers in shopping malls owned by Cadillac Fairview concluded that it violated Canadian privacy law, the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday. The OPC launched the investigation in 2018, conducted alongside the Alberta and B.C. privacy commissioners. It said in a press release Thursday that the company, which embedded cameras in 12 shopping malls across Canada, “used facial recognition technology without their customers’ knowledge or consent.” The release said the decals the company placed on entry doors referring to their privacy policy were not sufficient to make customers aware of what the company was doing. “Cadillac Fairview also asserted that it was not collecting personal information, since the images taken by camera were briefly analyzed then deleted. However, the Commissioners found that Cadillac Fairview did collect personal information, and contravened privacy laws by failing to obtain meaningful consent as they collected the 5 million images with small, inconspicuous cameras,” the OPC said. It added that Cadillac Fairview also used video analytics to “collect and analyze sensitive biometric information of customers,” and that after the company deleted the images, they were still being stored in a third-party database. “Shoppers had no reason to expect their image was being collected by an inconspicuous camera, or that it would be used, with facial recognition technology, for analysis,” federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said in the release. Cadillac Fairview stopped using the technology when the investigation began, and according to the OPC the company has no plans to reinstall the cameras. “The three privacy commissioners have recommended that if Cadillac Fairview were to use such technology in the future, it should take steps to obtain express, meaningful consent, before capturing and analyzing the biometric facial images of shoppers,” the release said. “The Commissioners remain concerned that Cadillac Fairview refused their request that it commit to ensuring express, meaningful consent is obtained from shoppers should it choose to redeploy the technology in the future.” The release comes a day after the OPC and 12 international counterparts called for “stronger privacy protections and greater accountability” when it comes to the development and use of facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI).

Facial recognition in malls violated privacy, commissioners say

Brief | October 29, 2020

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Facial recognition in malls violated privacy, commissioners say

Brief | October 29, 2020

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