Comments On The Clearview AI Joint Report Of Findings

On February 3, 2021, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI), the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC BC), and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (AB OIPC, and together with the BC OIPC, the CAI and the OPC, the Regulators), published a joint Report of Findings (the Report) following an investigation into whether Clearview AI, Inc.'s (Clearview) collection, use and disclosure of the personal information by means of its facial recognition tool, complied with federal and provincial private sector privacy laws (Privacy Laws).

In the wide-ranging Report, the Regulators characterize Clearview's activities as mass surveillance and as an affront to the privacy rights of individuals,¹ and cover such issues as the scope of the consent exception for publicly available information, whether Clearview's collection was for an appropriate purpose, and obligations relating to