Our goal is to contribute to building public trust in law enforcement by working with relevant partners to develop the necessary guardrails for the adoption of new technologies and community-based approaches that protect both public safety and Ontarians’ access and privacy rights.
Our work to further this goal includes the resources below.
TORONTO, ON (June 24, 2025) – Today, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) released guardrails for police use of investigative genetic genealogy. This first-in-Canada public resource marks an important step towards proper governance of this new and emerging technology.
Investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) is a technique used by police to solve crimes. It involves using genetic data from crime scene samples and DNA databases to identify individuals through genetic matches, or partial matches to biological relatives.
While IGG is a powerful tool for solving serious crimes, its use by police is currently not subject to any clear legislative framework. This raises real privacy and human rights concerns, especially for individuals who may become ensnared as part of a police investigation simply because they share DNA with someone else.
“Investigative genetic genealogy has the power to crack cold cases, bring closure to victims’ families, and even absolve the wrongfully convicted. But without clear legal rules, this new investigative tool can unduly broaden the scope of state surveillance and intrusion into the private lives of many innocent people.” said Patricia Kosseim, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. “Until there is a clear law governing the use of this technology, my office is proposing a policy framework to help ensure police in Ontario use this technology responsibly and in a way that maintains public trust.”
While the IPC does not necessarily endorse police use of IGG, these guardrails serve as a tool to help police comply with their legal obligations and mitigate risks to privacy and human rights. The twelve guardrails cover: lawful authority, necessity and proportionality, accountability, third party procurement, data minimization, retention, data security, controls for surreptitious DNA collection, transparency, access, public consultation, and ethical disclosure guidelines.
In developing these guardrails, the IPC consulted with a broad range of interested parties to ensure a diversity of voices and expertise, including: police services, government ministries, civil society and human rights organizations, academic researchers and lawyers, experts in forensic science, pathology, genomics and bioethics, First Nations technology leaders, as well as privacy, human rights, and victims’ rights regulators.
While investigative genetic genealogy is a valuable tool for solving crimes and bringing closure to grieving families, there are no clear laws for how police can use it, and under what circumstances. This raises significant privacy and human rights concerns. The IPC’s twelve guardrails focus on legality, transparency, and accountability to protect rights and maintain public trust.
The use of drones by law enforcement organizations in Ontario is growing. Drones can be deployed to find missing persons, in rescue operations, and to collect evidence at crime scenes among other uses. The IPC commissioned Dr. Scott Thompson of the University of Saskatchewan to produce a review of the existing and emergent state of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), and their use by law enforcement. Research was completed in September of 2024.
In this special retrospective episode of Info Matters, Commissioner, Patricia Kosseim revisits season four’s standout conversations. Highlights include junior high students' views on privacy, Cynthia Khoo on facial recognition, and Robert Fabes on how people experiencing homelessness perceive privacy. Dr. Devin Singh explores AI in health care, while Priya Shastri from WomanAct discusses information sharing in safety planning for survivors of intimate partner violence. The episode also covers the use of digital educational tools in the classroom, mediation in access appeals at the IPC, conversations about the IPC’s Transparency Showcase, and IPC health privacy cases involving cyber attacks and abandoned records.
This publication outlines the key obligations of police under privacy legislation in their use of ALPR systems. This is an update of the guidance document originally published in 2017, and provides recommendations, including best practices, on using these systems in a privacy-protective manner.
The IPC provided comments to the Ministry of the Solicitor General about a regulatory proposal relating to the publication of findings reports and directions by the Inspector General of Policing. This new role, the first of its kind in Canada, provides independent oversight of police services, police service boards and other policing organizations across the province. The IPC offers recommendations to support effective, privacy protective, transparent, and accountable oversight of policing organizations in Ontario.
This guidance assists justice, health, and social services professionals in making informed decisions about privacy, confidentiality, and public safety in situations of intimate partner violence (IPV) risk.
The guidance is intended to support professionals by explaining when Ontario’s privacy laws permit sharing personal information without consent, particularly when there’s a risk of serious harm to a person’s health or safety.
It was developed in response to a jury recommendation from a 2022 inquest by the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario into the tragic deaths of three women due to IPV.
The IPC opposes the repeal of Section 262 of the Community Safety and Policing Act proposed as part of Bill 157, the Enhancing Access to Justice Act. The public consultation requirements in Section 262 are crucial to maintaining transparency and accountability around the regulation-making process for critical policing matters.
This specific guidance offers practical recommendations for how Ontario police can mitigate potential privacy risks when using or contemplating using facial recognition technology to search mugshot databases. It includes key privacy, transparency, and accountability-related considerations to design, use, and govern such programs responsibly, in Ontario’s current regulatory context.
This specific guidance offers practical recommendations for how Ontario police can mitigate potential privacy risks when using or contemplating using facial recognition technology to search mugshot databases. It includes key privacy, transparency, and accountability-related considerations to design, use, and govern such programs responsibly, in Ontario’s current regulatory context.
