British Columbia's provincial insurance company has offered to let the Vancouver Police use its facial recognition software to identify the rioters in Vancouver. Software that's already running on Facebook might be pressed into service too. And that has some people seeing shades of big brother.

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Part Three of The Current

Facial Recognition Software - Adam Grossman

Yesterday on the program, we talked about the idea of using social media to name and shame people who took part in the post-Game-Seven riot in Vancouver. But we didn't get into the mechanics of how to do that ... how to take a potentially grainy, badly lit photo shot on someone's cell phone and identify the person in that picture.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. -- or ICBC -- has offered to help with that task, by letting the Vancouver Police use its facial recognition technology as the force investigates the rioters. It's one example of the increasing use of facial recognition technology. Adam Grossman is with ICBC and he was in Vancouver.

Facial Recognition Software - David Fraser

Many privacy advocates are concerned about the implications of facial recognition technology. David Fraser is a privacy lawyer with McInnes Cooper in Halifax.

Facial Recognition Software - Marc Rotenberg

Facial recognition software is creeping into our everyday lives in many ways. For example, Millions of people are participating -- knowingly or not -- in Facebook's first foray into facial recognition software.

Marc Rotenberg is the Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a group which has filed a complaint with the United States Federal Trade Commission over facial recognition software used in photo tagging on Facebook. Marc Rotenberg was in Washington, D.C. Good morning.

We did request an interview with Facebook, but we received no response.

Facial Recognition Software - Gil Hirsch

Gil Hirsch is the founder and CEO of Face.com, a facial recognition software company whose applications are used to find photos on Facebook. Gil Hirsch was in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Related Links:

• ICBC offers to help identify rioters By Vivian Luk - Globe and Mail
• Insurance corporation offers to help ID rioters - CBC News
• ICBC's facial recognition technology protects customers by identifying fraud - Press Release
• No Surveillance Without Oversight By Jay Stanley - The Guardian
• Facebook facial recognition software triggers FTS privacy complaint - LA Times
• Face tagging of photos raises privacy concerns By Emily Elias - Georgia Straight

Last Word - Shift Promo

Tomorrow on The Current, we'll have the last installment of our project SHIFT, about demographic change in Canada and the world. We'll conclude the project -- fittingly -- with a look at death. But SHIFT will live on this summer. The Current's Kristin Nelson got the last word to explain how.

SHIFT: Stories Behind the Stats starts June 27th and will air throughout the summer on Mondays at 9:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. on CBC Radio One.

And on Sirius 159 on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Other segments from today's show:

• Polling Predictions: Frank Graves
• Waiting for Treatment (Documentary)