The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Daniel Therrien has sent the following letter to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to provide information requested during his appearance before the Committee on May 2, 2022.
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Recommended legal framework for police use of facial recognition technology
During the appearance, I undertook to provide the committee with a copy of our Recommended legal framework for police agencies’ use of facial recognitionFootnote1, which was issued jointly by Federal, Provincial and Territorial Privacy Commissioners on May 2, 2022. Our recommended framework sets out our views on changes needed to ensure appropriate regulation of police use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in Canada. A future framework should, we believe, establish clearly and explicitly the circumstances in which police use of FRT is acceptable – and when it is not. It should include privacy protections that are specific to FRT use, and it should ensure appropriate oversight when the technology is deployed. While developed specifically for the policing context, there are many elements of our proposed that could be leveraged beyond this context.
Best practices for FRT regulation
The committee requested that I provide examples of best practices for regulating FRT from jurisdictions where regulatory frameworks have been enacted or proposed. Several international jurisdictions have enacted or proposed regulatory frameworks for FRT specifically, or biometrics more broadly that would also apply to FRT, which could inspire Canada’s approach. In particular, I would draw your attention to a number of notable measures worthy of consideration:
Read the full letter at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.