2024-06-04 06:30:20
The use of QR codes during the Olympic Games will improve crowd management around the venues, reduce queues and minimise the risk of fraud. However, this system requires the launch of an administrative investigation for each request with the creation of a file and raises the question of the protection of personal data.
To ensure the security of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, a QR code system has been set up by the authorities. The aim: to filter the entrances to certain areas particularly sensitive to the risk of attacks. A platform to obtain this digital pass has been opened by the Paris Police Prefecture. This document is essential for certain categories of users who need to move around the security perimeter. This is the case for people living in these areas or who work there, as well as those who need to go there, for example, to a professional or medical appointment. Spectators with a ticket for the opening ceremony or the sporting events will not need this “Games Pass”.
These QR codes will improve crowd management around sites and quickly verify people’s identities, reducing queues. They will also minimize the risk of fraud since an administrative investigation is carried out for each request. Several personal details are requested to obtain the sesame, such as name, first name, date and place of birth and address… It will also be necessary to add a recent identity photo, as well as proof of the request (proof of address, temporary accommodation, work or visit to the area to, for example, go to a medical appointment).
The technology to implement these QR codes is not new, they are nothing more or less than a two-dimensional barcode that refers to a database to check its veracity. Before Paris, other Olympic host countries have gone much further in digital security. Like Tokyo, where the Japanese authorities had deployed a facial recognition system to ensure the security and smooth the comings and goings of athletes, their staff members, volunteers and journalists. In 2022, China had in turn used a more generalized arsenal of surveillance since in addition to facial recognition, a mandatory anti-Covid application was suspected of spying on users, as was the internet network of the Olympic village.
Smart video surveillance to be tested during the Games
For the Paris Olympics, an “Olympic law”, voted in 2023, prohibits the use of facial recognition as well as any form of cross-referencing of files, but it allows for experimentation with intelligent video surveillance. Processing by artificial intelligence (AI), called “augmented camera”, will be able to automatically detect eight types of events: non-compliance with the direction of traffic, crossing or presence in a sensitive or prohibited area, crowd movement, excessive density of people, abandoned packages, presence or use of weapons, people on the ground, fires.
The implementation of QR codes requires the creation of a file and raises the question of the protection of personal data. This file is created on the basis of an order of 2 May 2011 relating to the files of residents of security zones created on the occasion of a major event. However, this order had to be amended on the occasion of the Paris Olympics in order to include new categories of data (photographs, proof of access, etc.). The CNIL confirmed the legitimacy of this data processing, but nevertheless requested certain modifications. Thus, copies of national identity cards, driving licenses, passports and residence permits will only be kept for the time necessary to issue the QR code, while other data will be kept for three months, as was already the case previously.
In a article published in The conversationtwo researchers from the University of Bordeaux, warn that the choice of QR codes is not insignificant. “On the contrary, it is part of the dynamic of techno-solutionism which makes the use of technological tools a principle and a solution to any human problem, without considering the consequences of this systematic use. It also contributes to the accustoming of citizens to these tools in a context where everyone is already subject to direct and indirect pressure from large digital companies,” they write.
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