{
  "record": {
    "id": "f6bfa3679a081449",
    "code": "PAI-F6BFA367",
    "force": "Royal Canadian Mounted Police (National Child Exploitation Crime Centre)",
    "country": "Canada",
    "country_code": "ca",
    "is_country": true,
    "region": "Canada",
    "technology": "Clearview AI facial recognition",
    "technology_slug": "clearview-ai",
    "vendor": "Clearview AI",
    "vendor_slug": "clearview-ai",
    "programme": "",
    "status": "discontinued",
    "stage": "withdrawn",
    "evidence": "regulator",
    "evidence_is_claim": false,
    "since": "2019",
    "legal_basis": "Privacy Act (federal public sector), section 4; the Commissioner found the collection contravened it",
    "oversight": "Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Special Report to Parliament",
    "notes": "The RCMP began using Clearview AI in October 2019, buying two licences for the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC); other members also used unpaid trial accounts. A directive of 5 March 2020 limited use to exigent circumstances such as identifying child victims or responding to imminent threats to life. Clearview ended its Canadian business and contracts, including the RCMP's, on 3 July 2020, and its records show RCMP access was suspended on 6 July 2020; the record is therefore held as discontinued from July 2020.\n\nThe Office of the Privacy Commissioner's Special Report to Parliament, dated 10 June 2021, found that the RCMP's collection of personal information from Clearview contravened section 4 of the Privacy Act, because Clearview had collected the images unlawfully, and that the RCMP lacked adequate systems to track and assess novel collections of personal information. Clearview's records showed 521 RCMP searches, of which the Commissioner found only about 6 per cent were linked to NCECC victim identification and about 85 per cent were not accounted for. The RCMP disagreed with the finding of contravention but agreed to implement the recommendations.\n\nIn response the RCMP created the National Technology Onboarding Program (NTOP) in 2021 to centralise assessment of new operational technologies. The RCMP's transparency blueprint (issued 8 July 2024, last modified 4 June 2026) states that it is \"currently only using a type of facial recognition technology called face matching\" on lawfully obtained evidence, anticipates facial identification in future only in specific circumstances, and does not use facial recognition on images or video from its drone fleet. See also the separate entry for the RCMP's 2026-27 facial recognition evaluation.\n\nCorrection in November 2026: the earlier version said use ended after the 2021 finding and that Clearview left Canada shortly afterwards. The Commissioner's report shows the order was the reverse: Clearview withdrew in July 2020 and the finding followed in June 2021.",
    "source": "Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Special Report to Parliament, 10 June 2021; RCMP NTOP transparency blueprint (modified 4 June 2026)",
    "source_url": "https://priv.gc.ca/en/opc-actions-and-decisions/ar_index/202021/sr_rcmp",
    "last_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "record_url": "https://www.policeainews.com/tracker/record/f6bfa3679a081449"
  },
  "licence": "https://www.policeainews.com/data#licence"
}