In Canada, the use of video surveillance has grown identical rapidly. In Ontario, both the municipal and provincial versions of the Freedom of Confidence and Protection of Confidentiality Achievement outline very specific guidelines that check how images and info can be gathered by this method and/or released.

To many, the development of CCTV in communal areas, linked to computer databases of people's pictures and identity, presents a serious breach of civil liberties. Critics agitation the possibility that one would not be able to meet anonymously in a federal place or drive and walk anonymously around a city. Demonstrations or assemblies in public places could be affected as the state would be able to collate lists of those Security Cameras leading them, taking part, or even just talking with protesters in the street.