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. The system captured images of every customer entering the stores and matched their facial features against a database of individuals identified as persons of interest, such as suspected shoplifters or those previously banned from the premises.

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, 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. 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.

Following the investigation, Canadian Tire removed all facial recognition systems from the affected stores and agreed to a corporate-wide prohibition on the use of facial recognition technology in its retail locations. 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, establishing an important precedent for the use of biometric surveillance in Canadian commerce.