TORONTO – The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is concerned by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s recent proposal to expand its use of flawed and intrusive facial recognition on people departing the United States, including Canadians.
Facial recognition is an intrusive surveillance technology that remains highly prone to error, with racialized, non-white people experiencing far higher false positive and negative rates than others. CBP will also remove an historical exclusion for young children and the elderly, despite similar ongoing deficiencies in the technologies’ ability to recognize these age groups. Failure to match can result in travel delays and more intrusive inspections.
“The harms of facial recognition systems continue to fall disproportionately on those most due to discrimination and bias,” said Tamir Israel, Director of CCLA’s Privacy, Surveillance and Technology Program. “Mass deployment of this technology—which is simply not yet fit for purpose—is reckless.”
Canadian citizens, historically excluded from biometric collection upon departure from the United States, will be covered by the new rule despite the integration of our border. However, U.S. privacy laws offer minimal protection to Canadians and other non-US persons while the expanded surveillance initiative fail to include any comparable expansion of privacy protections.
Images of non-US citizens will be kept in DHS databases for up to 75 years, and can be used by US and foreign agencies for reasons unrelated to border control, further expanding the risks that can result from false facial matches.
“This dramatic expansion of intrusive facial recognition capabilities is all the more troubling for its lack of accompanying privacy safeguards”, said Howard Sapers, CCLA’s Executive Director. “Biometric information is deeply sensitive, and requires the highest level of protection including rigorous security safeguards and effective privacy remedies.”
About the Canadian Civil Liberties Association
The CCLA is an independent, non-profit organization with supporters from across the country. Founded in 1964, the CCLA is a national human rights organization committed to defending the rights, dignity, safety, and freedoms of all people in Canada.
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