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Canadian Malls Are Using Facial Recognition To Track Shoppers' Age, Gender Without Consent (www.cbc.ca)
At least two malls in Calgary are using facial recognition technology to track shoppers' ages and genders without first obtaining their consent. "A visitor to Chinook Center in south Calgary spotted a browser window that had seemingly accidentally been left open on one of the mall's directories, exposing facial-recognition software that was running in the background of the digital map," reports CBC.ca. "They took a photo and posted it to the social networking site Reddit on Tuesday." From the report: The mall's parent company, Cadillac Fairview, said the software, which they began using in June, counts people who use the directory and predicts their approximate age and gender, but does not record or store any photos or video from the directory cameras. Cadillac Fairview said the software is also used at Market Mall in northwest Calgary, and other malls nationwide. Cadillac Fairview said currently the only data they collect is the number of shoppers and their approximate age and gender, but most facial recognition software can be easily adapted to collect additional data points, according to privacy advocates. Under Alberta's Personal Information Privacy Act, people need to be notified their private information is being collected, but as the mall isn't actually saving the recordings, what they're doing is legal. It's not known how many other Calgary-area malls are using the same or similar software and if they are recording the data.
mall rats can be detected easily :)
i like that because they (mall rats) are annoying
Some advocates paint a dystopian armageddon based on possibilities, non of which the mall is actually doing. It's basically "They're not doing anything to complain about BUT THEY COULD!!11".
The usual hardline, no-compromise outrage-activists that make people who care about sensible privacy look like tinfoil hatters.
IN PUBLIC
Everyone should know they are being recorded by security cameras when they are in public. If they hired a human to review the security tapes and take notes on who used the kiosks to know what ads to put on them or whatever, very few would have issues with it.
That's the problem with companies: too often they only ask if something is legal, and not if something is ethical.
Luckily our laws are the result of the larger ethical debate we as a society have. If enough people feel that something is unethical, we change the laws. Look at the GDPR in Europe. So Canadians: get upset!
Because it's basically a waste of time. It's a mall. it's 30% teenage girls, 30% women, and 40% "other".
...when people will finally realize they do not have privacy in public....and never will...
I see a lot of these click bait stories about privacy issues with public cameras and one the other day with a Uber driver who was recording passengers. But in the end if your in a public place you are subject to being watched and monitored like it or not its not illegal to do so. Its also not illegal to use those cameras to detect illegal activity such as minors loitering, or other criminal activity. People should realize these cameras are put in place as a result of the actions of others.
Ahhh... *this* is the thing behind the push to ban burqas by all those jeezers as of late. They're not nationalists, they're not identitaries, they aren't "defending Western civilisation" -- they are just lobbyists of the surveillance/ad-industry complex!
That explains it.
It would be hilarious if thousands of people started showing up to use the terminals while wearing Guy Fawkes masks. :)
Can it really detect all 79 genders?
They just call the police every time I show up in public. But they don't store my photo.
Neither of those are possible to determine by face or body features, you have to ask!
Society long ago accepted that any public space is under surveillance. They've had video cameras in shopping malls since there WERE shopping malls. I don't see how this is any different. In fact, even less invasive than the video cameras, since they don't save any personally-recognizable data.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
See, we do live in a dystopian dictatorship!! Truuuuuummmmmppp!!!
Oh ... you said Canada?
Er .. look, a squirrel!
There is no such thing as privacy in a public space. The idea that others can not study you when you are in plain sight is essential to liberty. I am reminded of the girl in the string bikini at the beach is angry because the wrong guy looked at her. How dumb can people get?
Probably watching for known shoplifters.
So that will apply to more than just malls I suspect wallyworld also.
And what is the punishment that the persons defining themselves as the state of Canada prevent for that offense?
What lifelong compensation do I get if I feel like a person who could have entered those malls or if I feel like a person who has been recorded there?
Malls are private property. They allow people to access them, but there's no right/entitlement to do so. Think about that...
How do they know what gender they are? How does this camera/software setup know how they identify?
In Canada, I have an expectation that the video surveillance will only be viewed if a crime has been committed and that if no crime has been committed it will be deleted in a short period of time. If I'm in an intimate place like a taxi, I have an expectation that only law enforcement will view it in the event of a crime. These malls haven't broken the law but they are close.
My city, Ottawa, experimented with putting up cameras in the parks. The cameras had software in them so that only the park was actually recorded. They masked out any buildings or private property before the data was saved. In the end they determined that the amount of crime prevention didn't justify the surveillance and dropped the project.
Not in Canada. You can't legally photograph me for commercial purposes in a public place (there are exceptions for public figures). Also some pictures even in a public place would be considered an invasion of privacy. Examples would be: Using a telephoto lens or taking a picture in wavelengths that make clothing see through or taking a picture under a woman's skirt. Even using a drone with a go-pro in a public place could get you in trouble. I have an expectation that people will see me and look at me in a public place with their eyes. I can expect, as long as they aren't being creepy and invading my space, them to record what they see for their personal use. Beyond that, I expect that I will not be recorded.
I mean, you could have a human with four buttons to click/press as people walk into the mall.
Young, old, male, female.
I'm creeped out by our growing surveillance state, but I don't see how you need someone's consent to note details about them in public.
It would certainly put a crimp on the private detective business.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Long-term, short-term -- it is still being stored.
Shop online, get monitored and tracked.
Shop in malls, get monitored and tracked.
Welcome to Canada!
It's people like you who perpetuate the myth of acceptance
Automated surveillance is completely different than people in public being naturally and passively visible to others in public
Maybe Canadians are not as evolved as we are in the US. They are still burdened with only two genders.
Not sure. Its prolly just recording meta-data of the photos. Of course, it may be recording the entire matrix of pixel data @ 29.97 FPS as "meta-data" ;-)
At least we know that's a mall doing it. Can anyone imagine what company or person has our details, that tells everything we like and did? Like Goo.. and all 'social medias' do. Wake up call people this is happening for a long time, stopping pretending be super silly
A shopkeep could have done this in the year 1250
They're not photographing you - they're creating a digital id that is indicative of your image. Youre confusing the act of taking a photo and storing it for subsequent, other purposes.
You can't be serious? They've even got software that's gotten pretty accurate (~70-80%) at telling if someone's gay or not...no shit, you can google that one for yourself.
Just another day in Paradise