June 2025 — October 2025
Update 10/02/25: Magna is no longer operating its pilot in Toronto! Thank you to everyone for your support in making this happen. Innovation does not need to come at the cost of privacy!
Our original post is below.
On May 26, 2025, Magna International Inc. began a self-driving vehicle pilot for food delivery within the City of Toronto. Magna intends to blur license plates but record people’s faces within the vicinity of the vehicle because “Magna believes that faces are very useful to determine gaze, pose and intent of motion” according to a background report by the City.
Other companies like Real Life Robotics, which is running a self-driving vehicle pilot in Markham, aren’t recording people’s faces: “the AI software [Real Life Robotics] use can easily scrub identifying features, like faces and licence plates.”
How you can help!
On June 27, we sent a letter (read here) to Magna with a list of specific privacy concerns based on their privacy policy.
If you want to get involved with strategy and planning, sign up on our volunteer page!
More info
On June 11, 2025, the pilot was discussed at the City of Toronto’s Infrastructure and Environment committee. The pilot is under the jurisdiction of the Province of Ontario, but Toronto is allowed to submit comments and feedback to the Province.
JJ, Ilya, Khasir and Akhil spoke up about the privacy concerns surrounding the pilot. Thanks to their voices, city councillors passed a motion on June 26 to investigate data privacy issues through the following questions:
- What type of data is being collected?
- Who has access to this data?
- Where is this data being stored?
- Can or will this data cross the border into the United States?
- Can Magna entities within the United States view the data?
- Would Magna entities be required to provide data to US or Canadian law enforcement if requested?
- Will facial recognition data be shared with law enforcement?
- Can future agreements change the nature of how the data is collected, stored, transmitted, and used?
- Are there any mechanisms for individuals, including those who cannot provide consent, such as children, to opt-out or request that their records be deleted?
- Are there ways to ensure that data can be destroyed if no consent was given?
- Can the terms and conditions of data management be changed, and if so, by whom?
- Does the City’s Digital Infrastructure Strategic Framework govern the collection and use of this data and if not, what can the City do when third parties want to harvest data in the public realm?
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