I had to renew my BC driver’s licence and during the process I found that I was added to a facial recognition data base.
I believe this to be a major violation of my privacy and other personal rights. That being said, I also believe in the process of discussion and and the power of consultation. The woman at the BC Services branch said this process has been in effect for many years already. The lady at ICBC could not give me the starting date, but she too assured me that ICBC has had a facial recognition data base for the B.C. DL for many years.
This seems quite unusual since I pay attention to these things, and five years ago I did not receive the ICBC pamphlet on this topic. Nor did my renewal notification describe the terms of the face scanning procedure. I don’t remember any media discussion on this topic. From looking at my MLAs’ websites and following up with emails, they don’t seem to know much about it either. Again, this is quite unusual since this is such a personal and private kind of data gathering. In fact, as the brochure states “Like fingerprints..” this process seems to be the kind of identification that the Criminal Justice System uses to identify and track criminals. I am not a criminal.
Everyone I ask has no knowledge of the use of facial recognition in the B.C. DL system. No one has heard any discussion on why or when it was brought into use. I am contacting any and all elected public servants who have any connection to this process. I am requesting that the collection of this data be stopped until adequate information is provided to the public. And that serious time has been dedicated to public discussion on why we should allow this data to be collected and stored.
I urge everyone to contact MLAs, Laurie Throness and John Martin requesting public discussion on this very personal invasion of privacy.
Gary Raddysh
Chilliwack