Under a recent law, police will be able to use CCTV algorithms to pick up anomalies such as crowd rushes, fights or unattended bags.
The law explicitly rules out using facial recognition technology, as adopted by China, for example, in order to trace “suspicious” individuals.
But opponents say it is a thin end of the wedge. Even though the experimental period allowed by the law ends in March 2025, they fear the French government’s real aim is to make the new security provisions permanent.
“We’ve seen this before at previous Olympic Games like in Japan, Brazil and Greece. What were supposed to be special security arrangements for the special circumstances of the games, ended up being normalised,” says Noémie Levain, of the digital rights campaign group La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Web).
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“We will not – and cannot by law – provide facial recognition, so this is a wholly different operation from what you see in China,” he says.
“What makes us attractive is that we provide security, but within the framework of the law and ethics.”
But according to digital rights activist Noémie Levain, this is only a “narrative” that developers are using to sell their product – knowing full well that the government will almost certainly favour French companies over foreign firms when it comes to awarding the Olympics contracts.
“They say it makes all the difference that here there will be no facial recognition. We say it is essentially the same,” she says.
“AI video monitoring is a surveillance tool which allows the state to analyse our bodies, our behaviour, and decide whether it is normal or suspicious. Even without facial recognition, it enables mass control.
“We see it as just as scary as what is happening in China. It’s the same principle of losing the right to be anonymous, the right to act how we want to act in public, the right not to be watched.”
Source: Paris 2024 Olympics: Concern over French plan for AI surveillance – BBC News
Robin Edgar
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