Privacy and Access Council of Canada
The voice for privacy and access
Facial recognition technology has expanded into various domains of public life including surveillance, policing, education, and employment, despite known risks ranging from identity-based discrimination and data privacy infringements to opaque decision-making. While policymakers around the world have proposed law and regulation of biometric technology, the governance landscape remains deeply divided across jurisdictions.Tech companies and law enforcement are taking advantage of weak legal regimes in Canada to increase capital and power through the pretext of public safety.
In this essay series, Facial Recognition Governance, McGill’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy explores the policy, legal and ethical issues of facial recognition technologies faced on a global scale. This project evaluates the challenges posed by the adoption of facial recognition into high-stakes public contexts in order to inform the coordination and reform of global policies and to safeguard the publics on which this technology is used.