A survey conducted by Canadian Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien (Daniel Therrien) and three provincial privacy commissioners found that a US company called "Clearview AI" (Transliteration) face recognition The company’s collection of photos of Canadians without notice or permission violated Canada’s privacy laws.
The report pointed out that this company allows clients such as law enforcement agencies and financial institutions to compare and match some photos with the recognition results of 3 billion photos in the company’s database, including the Canadian Federal Police, Toronto City Police and Calgary City Police. Through the company’s services.
Clearway, headquartered in New York, USA, argued that they obtained the photos through public channels and therefore did not violate Canadian privacy laws.
The investigation report believes that the company has obtained more than 3 billion photos on the Internet, including Canadian adults and children, which shows that the company has implemented large-scale surveillance of the public and is a clear violation of Canadian privacy laws.
In February 2020, this company was hacked and all its customer lists were stolen.
The public later learned that this company had provided services to more than 600 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada.
In July 2020, the company announced that it would cease its operations in Canada.
In December 2020, a US non-profit organization sued the company for infringement of privacy laws.
(Headquarters reporter Zhang Sen)