Clearview AI in Canada: Billions of Faces, No Consent
A photo you posted for friends can be copied by a company you have never heard of, turned into a biometric template and made searchable. Canadian regulators looked at exactly that.
By Siddharth ShankarUpdated October 11, 2026On February 2, 2021, the federal privacy commissioner and regulators in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta published joint findings on Clearview AI. They found its database held over three billion facial images with biometric identifiers, including millions of images of people in Canada, collected without the required consent. Clearview disagreed and did not commit to the recommendations. See what strangers can find about you.
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Most people know that what they post can be seen by others. Fewer know that a company can copy their pictures by the billions, extract a unique template of each face and sell search access to others. That was the subject of a joint investigation by Canada's privacy regulators.
What happened
The investigation was run by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada together with Quebec's access to information commission and the privacy regulators of British Columbia and Alberta. It began in February 2020, and the findings were published on February 2, 2021.
According to the findings, Clearview's database held over three billion facial images with biometric identifiers, including millions of images of people in Canada, among them children. The regulators concluded that Clearview did not have the required consent and that its purposes were inappropriate.
How it worked
Images were collected from public websites and converted into biometric identifiers, so that a photo of a face could be compared against the whole database. Clearview offered the service to third parties. The findings say only one Canadian agency became a paying customer (Clearview identified it as the RCMP), and that Clearview had created 48 accounts for Canadian agencies and organizations, which ran thousands of searches.
The regulators found the purpose, mass identification and surveillance by a private company for commercial gain, to be inappropriate. The people whose images were collected were not asked.
What was exposed
The data was facial images and the biometric identifiers computed from them. A face is not like a password. It cannot be changed, and it is visible every time a person is photographed in public.
The findings also stress that the images were scraped from public websites. Being publicly viewable is not the same as consenting to collection for facial recognition, which is the principle the regulators applied.
How it ended
The matter was found well-founded. The regulators recommended that Clearview stop offering its service in Canada, stop collecting images of people in Canada and delete the images and facial arrays it already held. Clearview disagreed with the findings. It left the Canadian market in July 2020, having suspended access in March 2020 except for the RCMP. At the time of the findings, the company had not committed to follow the recommendations.
For the people whose pictures were collected, the practical result is uncertain. We have not reviewed whether any images were deleted.
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Key facts at a glance
- Findings date: February 2, 2021
- Database size: over three billion facial images
- Regulators: federal, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta
- Canadian accounts: 48 created for Canadian agencies and organizations
- Only paying Canadian customer: one agency (Clearview identified it as the RCMP)
- Company response: disagreed and had not committed to the recommendations
How to limit your photo footprint
1Review who can see your photos
Set social media photo albums to friends only where possible.
2Search for your own images
Use a reverse image search on a profile picture to see where else it appears.
3Check what is public about you
Our guide to what strangers can find about you walks through a search.
4Ask for deletion where you can
Under Canadian privacy law you can ask a company what it holds on you. See how to request your personal information.
What the findings do not say
The findings do not tell an individual whether their own photo was in the database or give a way to find out. They also do not describe any later outcome in court. For a case where regulators took action on location rather than face data, see the Tim Hortons app findings.
Why this case matters
The Clearview findings address a question that applies to everyone who has ever posted a picture: does public mean free for any use? The Canadian regulators said no. Collecting images from public websites to build a biometric database still required consent.
The case also shows the limits of regulation. When a foreign company disagrees with findings and leaves the market, regulators have fewer tools. For individuals, that makes personal habits more important than any one decision: think about which photos are public, and who can view them.
Related reading that helps with cases like this: what strangers can find about you online, what Google knows about you and why data brokers hold your information. You can also try our free find personal information exposed online.
Sources
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Joint investigation of Clearview AI (PIPEDA Findings #2021-001) (joint findings, 48 accounts, March and July 2020 exits, over three billion images)
Frequently asked questions
How many images did Clearview AI hold?
The regulators found its database held over three billion facial images with biometric identifiers, including millions of images of people in Canada.
Did Clearview AI have consent?
The regulators found it did not have the required consent and that its purposes were inappropriate.
Did Clearview AI agree with the findings?
No. It disagreed with the findings and, at the time, had not committed to the recommendations.
Can a public photo be used for facial recognition?
The regulators said that public availability does not equal consent, so collecting public images to build biometric templates required consent.
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