It is an explosive subject. Should we introduce facial recognition in the public space on the occasion of the Paris Olympics in 2024? According to our information, it will be niet. The government has just decided, to avoid a trial under general surveillance. “The measure that will be proposed in terms of artificial intelligence to facilitate the work of securing competition, as part of the bill relating to the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, totally and explicitly excludes the use of facial recognition. “, confirms the Ministry of Sports. “No biometric data” will be used, specifies the future text.
On October 12, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, expressed her doubts before the Senate Culture Committee. “I understand the expectation and the importance of facial recognition, especially after the events at the Stade de France, she said, about the controversy that had hit her first days in government. But currently, the legislative provisions concerning security do not provide for these devices. We are working on intelligent, but anonymized algorithms to manage crowd movements in transport. And even these video protection devices will have to be examined by the Cnil and the Council of State before being implemented. For example, so-called “augmented” cameras will be able to detect the presence of an object abandoned by its owner on the public highway.
“A red line”
Nevertheless, the debate was lively. Proponents of facial recognition recalled for their part that this technology has been used many times in major sporting events piloted by other countries, to ward off the risk of terrorism or delinquency. Three senators proposed in a recent report the idea of an experiment on the occasion of the Olympic Games.
In the Assembly, on the other hand, the Macronist president of the Law Commission Sacha Houlié was resolutely opposed to it, considering that it represented “a red line”. An information mission had also been entrusted to MPs Philippe Latombe and Philippe Gosselin “We are satisfied that facial recognition is explicitly excluded from the text, including very clearly in the explanatory memorandum, reacts Sacha Houlié. There will be other points to discuss within the framework of the management of the spectators of the Olympic Games on this text however”.