
PIPEDA Findings #2021-001: Joint investigation of Clearview AI, Inc. by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, and the Information Privacy Commissioner of Alberta
A joint investigation by Canadian privacy commissioners examined Clearview AI's facial recognition tool, which scraped billions of images from public websites to create a database for law enforcement and other users. Clearview argued that Canadian privacy laws did not apply due to a lack of jurisdiction and that the information was "publicly available," thus exempt from consent requirements. The Offices asserted jurisdiction, finding a real and substantial connection to Canada through Clearview's marketing and use by Canadian entities. They determined Clearview failed to obtain requisite consent, as the "publicly available" exception did not apply to sensitive biometric data scraped from social media for unrelated purposes. Furthermore, Clearview's mass collection and use of sensitive facial biometric information for commercial purposes were deemed inappropriate. In Quebec, Clearview also failed to report its biometric database and obtain express consent as required by law. The matter was found to be well-founded, with recommendations for Clearview to cease operations in Canada and delete Canadian data, which Clearview did not commit to implementing.
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