Should rioters be ID’d through facial recognition program?
Posted Jul 22, 2011 4:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner in BC wants to make sure it’s legal for police to use a facial recognition program to identify people in the Stanley Cup riot. A report will look into whether the program, offered by ICBC, violates any privacy laws.
ICBC has a database of people’s driver’s licences. The program would match the faces in pictures and videos of rioters to those licences so police can identify them.
Adam Grossman with ICBC says they’ll cooperate fully with the privacy commissioner. “We welcome any findings that might further strengthen our practices in this area. We have not yet received any requests or images from the Vancouver Police Department,” he explains.
“Facial recognition technology was implemented to protect the identities of all of our customers. Maintaining the security and integrity of BC driver’s licences is very important to us,” he adds.
