Canadian privacy & access decisions

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigated the RCMP's collection of personal information from Clearview AI, a company that scraped billions of images from the internet for facial recognition. The OPC found that the RCMP contravened the Privacy Act by collecting this information, as Clearview had collected it unlawfully. While the RCMP disagreed with this finding, it agreed to implement the OPC's recommendations to improve its policies and systems for tracking and assessing novel collections of personal information.

• Whether the RCMP's collection of personal information from Clearview AI related directly to an operating program or activity of the institution.
• Whether the RCMP had adequate controls in place to prevent future contraventions of the Privacy Act.
• The lawfulness of Clearview AI's data collection practices.
• The adequacy of the RCMP's assessment of privacy risks associated with new technologies.