As police increasingly use facial recognition technology, calls for regulations grow – Winnipeg Free Press

MONTREAL — Some police forces in Canada are using facial recognition technology to help solve crimes, while other police forces say human rights and privacy concerns are keeping them from using powerful digital tools.

It’s the uneven deployment of the technology — and the loose rules governing its use — that has legal and AI experts calling on the federal government to set national standards.

“Until we better understand the risks associated with the use of this technology, there should be a moratorium or series of prohibitions on how and where it can be used,” says Kristen Thomasen, a law professor at the University of British Columbia.

Furthermore, inconsistent regulations regarding new biometric technologies have led to situations where the privacy rights of some citizens are better protected than those of others.

“I think the fact that we have different police forces taking different steps raises concerns about inequality and how people are treated across the country, but it also underscores the continued importance of taking some action at the federal level,” she said.

Facial recognition systems are a form of biometric technology that uses artificial intelligence to identify people by comparing images or videos of their faces – often captured by security cameras – with existing images in databases. The technology has been a controversial tool in the hands of police.

In 2021, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that the RCMP violated privacy laws when it used the technology without the public’s knowledge. That same year, Toronto police admitted that some of its officers had used facial recognition software without informing their chief. In both cases, the technology was provided by US company Clearview AI, whose database consisted of billions of images scraped from the Internet without the consent of the people whose images were used.

Last month, York and Peel police in Ontario said they had begun deploying facial recognition technology from French multinational Idemia. In an interview, York police officer Kevin Nebrija said the tools “help speed up investigations and identify suspects faster,” adding that in terms of privacy, “nothing has changed because security cameras are everywhere.”

But in neighbouring Quebec, Montreal police chief Fady Dagher says police will not adopt such biometric identification tools without a debate on issues ranging from human rights to privacy.

“It’s going to take a lot of discussion before we start thinking about implementing it,” Dagher said in a recent interview.

Nebrija stressed that the department has consulted with the Ontario Privacy Commissioner on best practices, adding that the images police will obtain will be “obtained lawfully” either with the cooperation of the owners of the security cameras or by obtaining court orders for the images.

And while York police say they will seek permission to do so through the courts, Kate Robertson, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, says Canadian police have a habit of doing the exact opposite.

Robertson said that since revelations about Toronto police’s use of Clearview AI in 2019-2020, she is “still not aware of any police in Canada that has obtained prior approval from a judge to use facial recognition technology in their investigations.”

According to Robertson, obtaining court approval, usually in the form of a warrant, is the “gold standard for privacy protection in criminal investigations.” This ensures that facial recognition, when used, is properly balanced with the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and other Charter rights.

While the federal government has no jurisdiction over provincial and municipal police forces, it can amend the Criminal Code to include legal requirements for facial recognition software, in the same way it updated the law to include voice-recording technologies that could be used for surveillance.

In 2022, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial heads of privacy commissions called on lawmakers to establish a legal framework for the appropriate use of facial recognition technology, including empowering independent oversight bodies, banning mass surveillance and limiting how long images can be stored in databases.

Meanwhile, the federal Department of Economic Development said Canadian law “may potentially” regulate companies’ collection of personal data under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA.

“For example, if a police force, including the RCMP, were to engage a private commercial company to perform activities that utilize personal information, then those activities could potentially be subject to PIPEDA, including services related to facial recognition technologies,” the department said.

Quebec Provincial Police also has a contract with Idemia, but has not disclosed exactly how it uses the company’s technology.

In an emailed statement, police said its “automated facial matching system is not used to check people’s identities. This tool is used in criminal investigations and is limited to data sheets of persons whose fingerprints have been taken under the Criminal Identification Act.”

Artificial intelligence management expert Ana Brandusescu says Ottawa and the nation’s police forces have failed to heed calls for better governance, transparency and accountability in the procurement of facial recognition technology.

“Law enforcement is not listening to scientists, civil society experts, people with lived experience and people who have been directly harmed,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2024.