The Ministry of the Interior is in favor of perpetuating the so-called “intelligent” video surveillance, tested for security purposes for more than a year, as we learned. the world Wednesday, October 2, confirming information from “France Info”. “It’s under review.”explains the cabinet of Minister Bruno Retailleau, who adds that registration while this system lasts, if proposed, must go through a legal text.
On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a law introduced the experimentation of this algorithmic video surveillance (VSA), a technology that analyzes images from cameras in public spaces in real time to automatically detect specific scenarios.
The texts thus provide, within the framework of this experiment that will last until March 2025, that alerts can be sent to the camera operator when certain actions are detected: crowd movements, a person pulling out a firearm, abandoned luggage, intrusion. in a prohibited area, etc. This technology can be used during cultural and sporting events that present major risks to public safety and must be subject, in each case, to authorization by the prefecture.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the Government is currently awaiting the report of the evaluation committee in charge of drawing lessons from this experience, which must deliver its conclusions before the end of the year. The prefect of Paris, Laurent Núñez, had already spoken out on September 25, during his appearance before the National Assembly, in favor of an expansion of this system.
A pending evaluation
What conclusions were drawn from this experience during the Olympic and Paralympic Games? Contacted by the worldRATP and SNCF, which participated in the project, refer to the Ministry of the Interior. But since the end of the Olympic Games, little information has been leaked about the real effectiveness of this system.
The first tests were carried out during football matches or concerts, before the start of the Olympic weeks. During these tests, the SNCF and the RATP particularly highlighted the effectiveness of intrusion detection technologies, useful for alerting of the presence of people on the roads, while expressing doubts about other tools, such as the detection of forgotten luggage.
VSA, whose effectiveness in terms of security is still debated, remains a controversial technology, whose possible sustainability worries some digital freedoms advocates. They see in particular the beginnings of the development of facial recognition, the use of which in real time is, in principle, prohibited in France. “These technologies are the emergence of a police fantasy project, this “permanent, exhaustive and omnipresent surveillance” that Michel Foucault spoke of in Monitor and punish »stressed on Thursday Félix Treguer, member of Quadrature du Net, in an interview with Spot.
Why is algorithmic video surveillance so controversial? Understand in three minutes
During the Olympic fortnight, 485 surveillance cameras were controlled using artificial intelligence software, as an experiment. Algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) is a technology that works with the existing network of video surveillance cameras. The goal is to make them “intelligent” passing the captured images through software that uses artificial intelligence. Currently, the objective is not to recognize faces, but to detect situations considered as “suspicious”. They could be crowd movements, falls, fire, weapons, etc.
Until now, this image analysis work was mainly carried out by video surveillance operators, who then alerted the police. The promise of this technology is to help these agents process an exponential amount of video surveillance images.
For its detractors, this artificial intelligence-driven surveillance raises numerous questions, particularly in terms of respect for privacy and discriminatory biases.
In this video, we return to how algorithmic video surveillance works and its challenges. We also interviewed Katia Roux, advocacy officer at Amnesty International France, responsible for the questions “technologies and human rights”on the issues raised by this new technology. To learn more, we invite you to read the article below on biometric recognition in public spaces.
“Understand in three minutes”
The explanatory videos that make up the “Understanding in three minutes” series are produced by the Vertical Videos department of the World. Mainly spread on platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, their goal is to contextualize big events in a short format and make the news accessible to everyone.
