Developers are prohibited from using Cohere's models to build unauthorized surveillance tools, including systems designed to monitor individuals without their knowledge or consent.
This analysis describes what Cohere's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This prohibition covers AI-assisted surveillance applications, which are an increasingly scrutinized category under both privacy law and the EU AI Act; deploying such applications on Cohere's infrastructure without authorization would constitute a policy breach and may engage independent legal liability.
Interpretive note: The policy does not define what constitutes 'authorized' surveillance, creating interpretive uncertainty for edge cases such as enterprise employee monitoring or parental control applications.
This provision protects individuals from being monitored through applications built on Cohere's API without their knowledge or consent, directly addressing privacy rights related to personal data and behavioral monitoring.
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"Certain use cases, such as violence, hate speech, fraud, and privacy violations, are strictly prohibited. [The policy specifically identifies unauthorized surveillance as a prohibited use category.]— Excerpt from Cohere's Cohere Usage Policy
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Unauthorized surveillance engages GDPR Articles 5 and 6 (lawfulness of processing), CCPA's sensitive data provisions, the EU AI Act's prohibitions on real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the US. State-level biometric privacy laws including Illinois BIPA may also apply where surveillance involves biometric identifiers. The FTC has authority over unfair surveillance practices in consumer contexts. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High. The term 'unauthorized' introduces interpretive complexity; the policy does not define the authorization standard, which means developers must exercise judgment about whether a given surveillance use case would qualify as authorized. This ambiguity creates compliance exposure in edge cases such as employee monitoring or location tracking applications. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU and EEA deployments face the highest exposure under the EU AI Act's explicit prohibition on certain biometric surveillance systems. Illinois deployments involving biometric data face BIPA exposure. California deployments involving location or behavioral monitoring engage CCPA sensitive data rules. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Platform operators offering monitoring, analytics, or tracking features built on Cohere should review whether their use case constitutes surveillance and whether appropriate user consent or legal authorization exists. B2B contracts involving employee monitoring or customer behavioral analytics should be specifically reviewed against this prohibition. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should assess whether any proposed analytics, monitoring, or tracking feature built on Cohere's API requires disclosure or consent under applicable law and whether that disclosure satisfies the 'authorized' standard implied by this prohibition.
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This prohibition covers AI-assisted surveillance applications, which are an increasingly scrutinized category under both privacy law and the EU AI Act; deploying such applications on Cohere's infrastructure without authorization would constitute a policy breach and may engage independent legal liability.
This provision protects individuals from being monitored through applications built on Cohere's API without their knowledge or consent, directly addressing privacy rights related to personal data and behavioral monitoring.
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