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October 30, 2020 01:00 pm

Privacy Investigation Finds 5 Million Shoppers' Images Collected At Malls Across Canada

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CTV News: Without customers' knowledge, more than five million images of Canadian shoppers' were collected through facial recognition software used by Cadillac Fairview, a parent company of malls across the country, according to an investigation by privacy officials. The federal privacy commissioner reported Thursday that Cadillac Fairview contravened federal and provincial privacy laws by embedding cameras inside digital information kiosks at 12 shopping malls across Canada, and captured users' images without their consent. The facial recognition software installed in Cadillac Fairview's "wayfinding" directories was called "Anonymous Video Analytics (AVA) and through cameras installed behind protective glass, was used in Canadian malls for a brief testing period in 2017 and then was in-use between May and July of 2018. The software took temporary digital images of the faces of any individual within the field of view of the camera inside the directory and converted the images into biometric numerical representations of each face and used that information to compile demographic information about mall visitors. According to a statement from Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien, the company said the goal of its cameras was to "analyze the age and gender of shoppers and not to identify individuals." The corporation said that it did not collect personal information because the images were briefly looked at and then deleted, however the information generated from the images was being stored by a third-party contractor called Mappedin, which Cadillac Fairview said it was unaware of. "Cadillac Fairview -- one of the largest owners and operators of retail and other properties in North America -- 'expressly disagreed' with the investigation's findings, telling the commissioners that there were decals placed on shopping mall entry doors noting their privacy policy," the report adds. "These stickers directed visitors to visit guest services to obtain a copy of the company's privacy policy, but when the investigators asked a guest services employee at the Eaton location in Toronto, the employee was 'confused by the request' and so Therrien found the stickers to be an 'insufficient' measure."

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