Tomorrow, La Quadrature du Net will attack the CNIL, the Ministry of the Interior and its ” four pillars of the Technopolice “. The association, specialist in the defense of freedoms in the digital world, calls on anyone who wishes to mandate them in the context of this collective complaint.
Created in 2008, La Quadrature du Net presents itself as an association that ” promotes and defends fundamental freedoms in the digital environment ” and that ” fight against censorship and surveillance, whether it comes from states or private companies ».
Several times in the columns of FranceSoir, we relied on the excellent work proposed by this association. Particularly in the context of a large file which dealt with the global security law and the liberticidal turn it proposed.
Composed of diverse and varied profiles, La Quadrature du Net relies mainly on a community of volunteer members. Regarding its financing, the association counts ” at 78% » on the ” numerous individual donations from citizens which allow it to ensure its independence.
In almost 15 years, the association has become a real bastion of the defense of freedoms in the digital field in France. We no longer count his referrals to the Constitutional Council, his articles denouncing the setbacks in freedom, as during the adoption of the health pass, or his actions, sometimes collective, such as that currently carried out against the Technopolice.
The surveillance of our cities has become total#Technopolice
It combines video surveillance and mass recording, face recognition and automated behavior detection
To put an end to it, join our collective complaint against the min. from insidehttps://t.co/9M7yozfSmN pic.twitter.com/k2Tehv3RfQ
— La Quadrature du Net (@laquadrature) May 24, 2022
What is the Technopolice and what are its pillars?
Technopolice is a term used by La Quadrature du Net to define the way in which the technological universe is used by the police to monitor the population.
The association differentiates between four pillars within this Technopolice: Logging, CCTV cameras, facial recognition and algorithmic video surveillance (VSA) “. Pillars that La Quadrature du Net develops and rigorously details on its website.
The filing, mainly fed by TAJ and TES files (files for the Processing of Criminal Records and Secure Electronic Titles), are qualified by the file association as ” massive and illegal surveillance “, for the first, and ” the beginnings of mass facial recognition for the second.
Video surveillance is denounced by La Quadrature du net as being more a matter of control and surveillance for the power, than a really security approach, as its results are particularly weak in the fight against delinquency. In this sense, the association wonders: How was it possible in 2022 to achieve this insane expansion of video surveillance cameras, to the least densely populated territories to fight, among other things, against “the dumping of wild garbage”? How to explain that there are, at the very least, 1 million cameras monitoring public space if they are not effective in ensuring the safety of city dwellers and fighting against what is called “delinquency”? ».
Facial recognition, it, is already deployed in France ” and is, according to the association« used since 2012, without legal framework, (…) more than 1,600 times a day by the police, but also by the intelligence services ».
A technology seen with a very bad eye by La Quadrature du Net who clearly doubts the intentions behind its deployment : « As if mass biometric surveillance could be anything other than an authoritarian control tool ending the anonymity of our movements in public space ».
Finally, algorithmic video surveillance is defined by La Quadrature du net as being the addition ” from an algorithm layer to so-called “classic” video surveillance cameras. And this, with the aim of making automatic the analysis of the images captured by cameras, until now carried out by humans, video operators within urban supervision centers (CSU) ».
In short, this involves entrusting an artificial intelligence with the management of the data captured by video surveillance, so that it analyzes them with the aim of automating the detection of offences. A new form of technological surveillance against which it is particularly important to oppose according to the association.
La Quadrature du Net punctuates its plea concerning these 4 pillars by recalling that in its view ” all these technopolice tools do not contribute to improving our security. They only increase surveillance and repression without granting us more freedoms in our streets, on the contrary ».
About 13,500 people have mandated the association to attack the state
La Quadrature du Net therefore calls on anyone who wishes to join, by tomorrow at 9:30 p.m., the 13,450 representatives who are already supporting them in their collective action against the Ministry of the Interior. This complaint will then be filed during the Technopolice festival which opened its doors this Thursday in Marseille. On the program of the event: screenings, discussions and concert around this massive surveillance which worries more and more by its rapidity of expansion.
This Technopolice is also characterized by the discretion that usually surrounds its application. As when we reported to you in FranceSoir, in December 2020 during a demonstration against the global security law, the presence of a ” odd » Gendarmerie van equipped with facial recognition cameras, and whose function and technological capabilities were still unknown.
It was a van from the CNOEIL, the National Cell for the Observation and Exploitation of Forensic Imagery, which ” armed by specially trained gendarmes, has stations on vehicles, equipped with systems for taking pictures and identification, immediately usable by additional means of transmission. ».
A van, which according to Maxime Sirvinsfounding journalist of Maintiendelordre.frpossesses ” a mast allowing a shooting at 7 m high for a vision up to 200 m to identify the perpetrators of infringements in demonstration ».
This generalized surveillance, which invades our public space, both urban and rural, and which is not consented to by a population that is overwhelmingly ignorant on the subject, raises real political and philosophical questions as to the direction we collectively want, and therefore democratically, give to our society. It is to be deplored that before being legalized, such a revolution in terms of surveillance was not the subject of any serious debate between the public authorities and civil society.
This collective complaint that La Quadrature du Net is preparing to file with the CNIL is the best proof of this.