Cadillac Fairview covertly collected images of millions of shoppers: Privacy commissioner - Calgary Herald

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Despite the violation of Canadian privacy law, Sharon Polsky said the country’s privacy legislation could not adequately ensure Cadillac Fairview would follow regulations in the future.

“The only thing the commissioner can do is ask nicely and make a recommendation, and if the company says, ‘Thank you for your recommendation, we’ll continue doing what we want anyhow,’ that’s all (the commissioner) can do, because the law is ineffective,” said Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada.

The five million images of shoppers collected were not faces, and the software was not capable of recognizing people, Cadillac Fairview said.

“These are sequences of numbers the software uses to anonymously categorize the age range and gender of shoppers in the camera’s view,” the company’s statement read.

According to the investigation, Cadillac Fairview asserted they had made shoppers aware of the use of facial recognition technology through decals placed at their entrances, but the privacy commissioners deemed those measures insufficient.

Polsky said she went to see the decals in August 2018, after the investigation commenced.

She said they did not mention the use of facial recognition software at the time, but were later changed to give more privacy information.

“This was not proper consent, and it’s unfortunate that the law allows companies in Canada to be cavalier,” Polsky said.

The privacy commissioners expressed concern Cadillac Fairview had refused to commit to obtaining express, meaningful consent from shoppers if it were to use the technology again in the future.

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring

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2020-10-29 20:51:34Z
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