In a report to lawmakers, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said Clearview AI‘s collection of images without consent and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)’s use of that database were illegal.

The software startup has stockpiled more than three billion images grabbed from popular social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, as well as millions of other websites.

It has made its database and software tool available to authorities in Canada and the United States for the purposes of identifying individuals, raising concerns about police surveillance.