2024-07-25 08:00:00
Will the Olympic Games usher in the era of mass surveillance? In any case, algorithmic video surveillance (VSA) will play a key role during the event, in Paris and in the host cities. And for good reason. Boosted by artificial intelligence, this technology cConnects the intelligent models of the machine learning to the camera system, through integrated software.
In public places that will be frequented during the Olympic Games, this technology should thus allow, according to the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL), to automatically analyze images. It “improves” video surveillance software on cameras already installed. In what context will VSA be used during the Olympic Games? It will be used in eight specific situations, indicates the CNIL, including fires, crowd movements or abandoned objects. Once detected, an alert will then be sent to the security posts, which will decide whether or not to take action.
First European state to legalize the technology
It was during a parliamentary debate in March 2023 on the JO law, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior (now resigned), Gérald Darmanin, that some deputies presented algorithmic video surveillance as the solution to the security issue. By adopting this law, France was the first EU member state to legalize algorithmic video surveillance. Since then, two first orders have been issued by the police headquarters to authorize the use of VSA during the Depeche Mode concert on March 5 and a basketball game on the 20th in order to begin experiments.
Senator Agnès Canayer also stated during her presentation of the report “Winning the gold medal for securing the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games” that the latter would be a “great playground to experiment with VSA”.
Discriminatory biases that are worrying
Quentin Berenne is the co-founder of Wintics, one of four companies that won the €4 million contract awarded by the Ministry of the Interior to develop the VSA technology. He compares the operation of the software to ” Chinese shadow “ and ensures that the cameras only detect the silhouette and shape of individuals or objects.
However, Katia Roux, head of Freedom advocacy at the NGO Amnesty International, points out that these technologies ” are not neutral ” The data, the choices of situations entered into the algorithms “are the work of biased professionals, and this unconsciously or not created discriminatory situations.”. Thus, certain categories of people would be more targeted by their situation, such as the homeless, demonstrators, people with disabilities, a musician in the street…
« Who will define what is the norm? Will a person with a disability, with a different way of moving or gestures be detected by the algorithm as a person with abnormal behavior? », Katia Roux alerts Amnesty International France.
The CNIL nevertheless specifies that a human analysis will be carried out in order to determine whether an intervention is necessary. Thus, if this is justified, reports will be sent to the national police, who will make the arrest as quickly as possible.
Technology not optimal for July 26
Furthermore, the real effectiveness of these technologies is being questioned. Indeed, last April, the Senate published a report as part of a monitoring mission, explaining that the VSA system will not be optimal for the 2024 Olympic Games and that the security objectives set will not be fully achieved. New means will therefore be deployed to compensate for these failures.
Added to this is the fact that the system will be maintained until March 2025, in particular to be able to complete the experiment and draw conclusions from it. Katia Roux speaks here of a “real desire to broaden the scope in time and space of the application of this device.” She also warns about the continuum of technological advances in France. Different stages have been reached in recent years: cameras, drones, now algorithmic layers… In 2013, 60,000 cameras were installed in the streets of France. Today there are more than 90,000 according to and video surveillance report delivered by deputies Philippe Gosselin (LR) and Philippe Latombe (Modem) in 2023. And that’s without counting the cameras present in shops, banks, parking lots which have only increased since the 2015 attacks which hit French soil.
In the face of various concerns and warnings, the CNIL nevertheless wants to be reassuring. This system is in no way intended to be used after the Olympic Games and only a law would allow it to be extended. The CNIL calls for the adoption of such a text to be done during a “democratic debate”.
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