Canadian Privacy Commissioners Declare Clearview AI Represents "Mass Surveillance" of Citizens

A joint investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and provincial counterparts from Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta concluded that Clearview AI’s scraping of billions of images of people from across the Internet represented “mass surveillance” and was a clear violation of the privacy rights of Canadians. The investigation found that Clearview had collected over 3 billion images from the internet without consent, including images of Canadians and children in their biometric database, and that the company collected “highly sensitive biometric information without the knowledge or consent of individuals.”

Findings on Privacy Violations

The investigation determined that Clearview AI’s activities violated reasonable expectations of privacy for the “vast majority” of individuals who were never implicated in crimes. Commissioners found that the company used personal data for purposes that “cannot be rendered appropriate via consent” - meaning that even if individuals had been asked permission, the surveillance would still be inappropriate. The creation of facial recognition matching capabilities accessible to law enforcement and commercial entities without public knowledge constituted systematic privacy violations.

Enforcement Actions and Company Defiance

Canadian privacy authorities ordered Clearview AI to stop offering facial recognition services to Canadian clients, cease collecting images of individuals in Canada, and delete all previously collected images and biometric facial arrays of Canadian individuals. While Clearview had voluntarily discontinued Canadian operations in July 2020, suspending its contract with the RCMP (its last remaining client in Canada), the company “disagreed with the findings” and did not demonstrate willingness to comply with deletion orders. Authorities indicated they would “pursue other actions available under their respective Acts” if Clearview maintained its refusal.

Significance

This marked the first comprehensive governmental finding that Clearview AI’s business model constituted “mass surveillance” - a designation that fundamentally challenged the company’s claim to be simply providing a law enforcement tool. The Canadian investigation established legal precedent that facial recognition surveillance at this scale violated privacy rights even when used for legitimate law enforcement purposes. The company’s refusal to delete Canadian data despite regulatory orders demonstrated that private surveillance companies could operate beyond the reach of democratic accountability, creating authoritarian infrastructure that defied national governments’ attempts to protect citizens’ privacy rights.