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HALIFAX, N.S. —

Halifax police are confirming they used controversial facial recognition software made by Clearview AI, but say they’re no longer using the technology.

The revelation comes following the RCMP admission that they have used the software and a data breach involving thousands of the company’s law enforcement clients.

An investigation by BuzzFeed News, published Feb. 27, revealed the startup -- which is facing legal threats from Facebook, Google, and Twitter -- is working with more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies, companies and individuals globally.

Using the data obtained by BuzzFeed, the Toronto Star reported that the technology has been more commonly used in Canada than previously believed. Among the dozen police forces and companies across Canada confirmed to have used the service? Halifax Regional Police.

Spokesperson Const. John MacLeod confirmed the news to SaltWire in a Feb. 28 email.

“We looked into this and found that a specialized investigator has used this application very recently,” MacLeod wrote.

“Officers are always looking for emerging investigative tools to advance their investigations. Similar to many other services this product was used for open source data searches only and was being tested on a free trial basis.

“Yesterday we learned that there was a data breach involving the users of the application trial. As a result of that our use of the application has been suspended.”

Asked in a follow-up email when exactly the officer used the service and whether it was just one officer, MacLeod wrote: "Over the last two weeks there has been one specialized investigator that has used the application."

What is it?

Clearview AI is a three-year-old American startup marketing its service mostly to law enforcement agencies, though it’s now alleged to have been used by companies including retailers like Walmart and Best Buy.

The company built a facial-recognition database of more than three billion images scraped from the internet, including from social media accounts. The software then matches names to faces.

If police in Halifax, for instance, wanted to solve a robbery and had a surveillance photo of their suspect, they could run that photo through the software to see if it finds a match.

The company claims it’s been used to “identify child molesters, murderers, suspected terrorists, and other dangerous people quickly, accurately, and reliably to keep our families and communities safe.” It says the software is an “after-the-fact research tool,” not a surveillance system.

Facebook, Google and Twitter have all sent cease and desist letters to Clearview demanding it stop collecting its users’ photos.

What's next?

The federal office of the privacy commissioner announced on Feb. 28 that it would be investigating the RCMP’s use of the technology.

“The OPC, along with privacy regulators in every province and territory, have agreed to work together to develop guidance for organizations – including law enforcement – on the use of biometric technology, including facial recognition,” read a statement from the office.

Halifax privacy lawyer David Fraser said he hopes the issue starts a conversation about the police use of intrusive technologies generally.

“So many of the new technologies that police are looking to adopt for their investigations don’t just deal with the information of suspects, but in fact hoover up every available haystack in order to try to find the needle,” Fraser said in a Feb. 28 interview.

“And every one of those haystacks are made of innocent people’s information.”

Fraser likened the use of facial recognition technology to the police use of IMSI catchers, known as StingRays, which are used to intercept and track mobile phone data.

The RCMP acknowledged in 2017 that it used the devices after years of denial.

“It seems to be consistent across the board, where the RCMP says, ‘We don’t comment on investigative techniques.’ Well that’s not good enough, as far as I’m concerned,” Fraser said.

“Civilian oversight of policing is broken if none of this is coming forward to the civilian agencies that are supposed to oversee police departments and all of these decisions are being made in the shadows.”

SaltWire asked the three councillors on the Halifax board of police commissioners — Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn and councillors Lindell Smith and Tony Mancini — for comment, but did not receive a response by the end of the day on Feb. 28.

Zane Woodford is a Halifax-based journalist for SALT and SaltWire.com.

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