Commissioners specifically call for vigilance regarding “scope creep”

On Data Privacy Day, January 28, 2020, the Information and Privacy Commissioners of the four Atlantic Canadian provinces issued a statement intended to highlight the privacy implications of the adoption of facial recognition technology. The statement included a backgrounder on the technology, referring to Investigation PC-010005-1 from the Ontario Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) and a publication from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada entitled “Automated Facial Recognition in the Public and Private Sectors.”

The backgrounder, available here, also raised the issue of “scope creep” and pointed to the recent implementation of biometric photos on drivers licenses and provincial ID cards in the region.

The statement came shortly after the New York Times wrote a highly-shared article on facial recognition technology that mined social media accounts and is offered to law enforcement.