Canada’s privacy regulator to probe billboards equipped with facial scanning tech

Canada’s privacy commissioner has begun a probe into billboards that use facial detection technology for targeted advertising.

The billboards, located near Toronto’s Union Station, reportedly analyze only the age and gender of passerbys, according to their owner, Cineplex Digital Media (CDM). They’re part of a growing wave of technology that uses cameras, large databases and in some cases artificial intelligence to survey people in public.

The debate began after a Reddit user posted last month about the billboards’ alleged facial detection capabilities. The Reddit post reportedly included an image of a disclaimer about the facial detection displayed on the billboard.

Read more at The Record