B.C.'s privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia's offer to use its facial recognition technology to help police identify suspects in the Stanley Cup riot.

Commissioner Elizabeth Denham says she will look at how ICBC uses and shares its database, which contains digitally encoded images of every person in the province who has a driver's licence.

"There is a fine balance to be struck in weighing a citizen's privacy interests and the use of personal information for law enforcement," said Denham in a statement issued on Friday morning.

Last month Denham approved the use of the data as long as ICBC did not disclose any personal information until police produce a court order.

Denham said the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act prohibits one government agency from collecting information, such as that for a driver's licence, and using it for another purpose. However, a provision in the law allows information to be disclosed to police.

But on Friday the privacy commissioner said she is still investigating to make sure ICBC complies with provincial privacy laws. ICBC has committed to co-operate fully with the commissioner's investigation, she said.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association policy director Michael Vonn said she welcomed the investigation.

ICBC's database has already been used to find fraudsters and identify thieves. The facial recognition technology uses computers to take biometric measurements, such as the distance between a person's eyes, nose, cheekbones and jaw, to create a digital profile that can be used to identify a person from another photograph or video image.

Earlier this week, police said they were still sorting through thousands of images from the riot that erupted following the Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver in June.