Video surveillance software: the CNIL launches a “control procedure” targeting the Ministry of the Interior

The CNIL, independent authority guardian of the private lives of the French, announced on Wednesday that it was launching “a control procedure” vis-à-vis the Ministry of the Interior, after the publication of information concerning undeclared use by the police. video surveillance software. “The CNIL is initiating a control procedure with the Ministry of the Interior following the publication of a journalistic investigation reporting possible use by the national police of video surveillance software published by

According to an investigation by the investigative site Disclose published on Tuesday, the police acquired in 2015, “secretly”, video surveillance image analysis software from the Israeli company Briefcam, specializing in software development. intended for algorithmic video surveillance, and today owned by the Japanese giant Canon. “For eight years, the Ministry of the Interior has concealed the use of this tool which allows the use of facial recognition,” writes Disclose.

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The CNIL is already carrying out checks on algorithmic (or “augmented”) video surveillance cameras used in particular by local authorities. “We will very probably control some of the augmented cameras used in the framework of the Olympic Games” in Paris, the Commission also assured in May. The French Parliament adopted a law in April with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games which contains an important security component, including algorithmic video surveillance, supposed to make it possible to more quickly identify potentially dangerous “events” based on camera images and drones, and report them to security teams.

The executive and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, cite the need to secure the millions of visitors and insist on safeguards and the absence of facial recognition. But left-wing elected officials, associations like Amnesty International and Quadrature du net or the National Bar Council are against.