
RCMP denied using facial recognition technology, then said it had been using it - pseudolus
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/clearview-ai-rcmp-facial-recognition-1.5482266
======
yycboy
The Calgary Police uses Peter Thiel's data-mining company Palantir. At
political events such as protests, town halls, meet and greets, you can see
members of the Calgary police walking through parking lots near by and taking
pictures of license plates. With the license plate numbers, they can identify
someone's name and use it to find out current address, family relationships,
bank accounts, and more if it is in their database.

Read more: [https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/palantir-silicon-
valley-t...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/palantir-silicon-valley-
technology-giant-data-canada-1.4111163)
[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kx4z8/revealed-this-
is-p...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kx4z8/revealed-this-is-palantirs-
top-secret-user-manual-for-cops)

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JasonFruit
Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone who believes a government can _have_ a
tool and limit itself from _using_ it is naive beyond understanding. Paper
documents, lawsuits, and international agreements are all incapable of
restraining government. It is completely amoral, and its survival depends on
power and control; the only thing that can restrain government from an action
is the fear of a backlash that will cause it to lose more power than that
action would provide. I don't know how it is in Canada, but in the USA, the
people are not inclined to outrage, no matter what the government does.

~~~
citilife
I agree fear of losing power is the only thing that restrains government. But
disagree with:

> I don't know how it is in Canada, but in the USA, the people are not
> inclined to outrage, no matter what the government does.

That's not entirely true though -- currently in the USA republicans are so
scared of standing up to some of Trumps wilder ideas because they will get
voted out.

Similarly, when Virginia's government discussed imposing new gun legislation,
22,000 people marched (with guns) through Richmond:

[https://www.npr.org/2020/01/20/797895183/richmond-gun-
rally-...](https://www.npr.org/2020/01/20/797895183/richmond-gun-rally-
thousands-of-gun-owners-converge-on-virginia-capitol-on-mlk-d)

They might not always care enough to protest in such a manner, but they do,
fairly regularly.

~~~
JasonFruit
That's a point; there is a tendency to some protest. But that wasn't really
what I meant. I mean that, to control a government, they must fear that the
people will remove them in the time-honored fashion.

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coldcode
Apparently lying about something and then admitted it (with no consequences)
is a popular theme these days.

~~~
Nasrudith
Gaslighting appears to be a nasty and old habit of governments back to
"liberating" the local Christians in the crusade and then both raiding their
countryside for crops and then not sparing them from the massacres and
looting.

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dghughes
In my Canadian province we were all issued new enhanced driver's licenses. It
was only recently discovered that each person's image was entered into a
police database. No permission was given no indication it was being done.

~~~
SketchySeaBeast
Wasn't the assumption that, by getting a driver's license, you were entering
your image into at the very least a government database? I kind of assumed
that those pictures, and all the licence data attached, would be open to the
police for use in traffic stops.

~~~
dghughes
I believe they were used for other purposes like someone robbed a bank so your
photo is checked to see if you were the robber.

It's only supposed to be used for driving not for anything else.

------
shadowprofile77
All Canadian passports are biometric anyhow (someone correct me if this is
mistaken) and upon entry into the country in many places, you scan your face
for a camera anyhow before even seeing the customs people. Seeing as how both
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP are federal agencies, they
already have theoretical access to everyone's face data. That's the real sad
state of affairs: they don't even need to this stuff secretly when they make
it obligatory in some other way with not one single protest.

------
zouhair
The future is grim.

