Canadian Tire Deployed Facial Recognition to Identify Shoppers in British Columbia Stores

Twelve Canadian Tire stores in British Columbia deployed facial recognition technology through in-store cameras positioned at entrances, exits, checkout areas, the retail floor, and parking lots (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, 2023). The system captured images of every customer entering the stores and matched their facial features against a database of individuals previously flagged as persons of interest — those allegedly involved in theft, vandalism, harassment, or assault (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, 2023).

The British Columbia Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) investigated and released its findings in 2023, determining that the deployment violated British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). The OIPC found that Canadian Tire had failed to notify customers that facial recognition was in use (CBC News, 2023), failed to demonstrate that the technology was reasonably necessary for its stated loss prevention purpose, and had not obtained consent for the collection of biometric information (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, 2023). The system captured the biometric data of all customers, not just suspected shoplifters, meaning that the vast majority of people surveilled were ordinary shoppers with no connection to any wrongdoing (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, 2023).

Following the investigation, Canadian Tire removed all facial recognition systems from the affected stores. The corporation subsequently stated publicly that it and its Associate Dealers had mutually agreed to prohibit the use of facial recognition technology in Canadian Tire stores. The OIPC's investigation is one of the few Canadian cases where a privacy regulator has examined and ruled on the use of facial recognition in a retail environment, and was widely noted as a significant regulatory finding on biometric surveillance in Canadian retail.