⁍ Canadian mall operator illegally collected personal information of 5 million people via cameras installed in its malls.

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⁍ Cadillac Fairview used facial recognition technology in 12 malls across Canada without customers’ consent.

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⁍ No financial penalties were handed out but Cadillac has removed cameras from its digital directory kiosks.

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– Canada’s biggest mall operator illegally collected the personal information of 5 million people via cameras installed in 12 malls, Reuters reports. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada says Cadillac Fairview used facial recognition technology in the malls without customers’ consent to estimate the age and gender of shoppers and then delete the images. The company says the information it collected was not identifiable to individuals but agreed that “the privacy of our visitors must always be a top priority.” Cadillac says shoppers were made aware by stickers alerting them to the potential analysis of images taken when entering the malls, but the investigation found this was insufficient. Earlier this year, New York-based Clearview AI stopped offering facial recognition services in Canada after OPCC launched an investigation.