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.
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.
IPC comments to the board concerning its review of the Toronto Police Services’ artificial intelligence based, facial recognition mugshot database program.
The IPC provided comments to the Ministry of the Solicitor General regarding the regulatory proposals under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 (CSPA) following the ministry’s request for public input. In these comments, the IPC offers high-level comments on three proposals that relate to the IPC’s mandate.
