PARIS — A controversial video surveillance system cleared a legislative hurdle Wednesday for use through the 2024 Paris Summer season Olympics amid opposition from left-leaning French politicians and digital rights NGOs, who argue it infringes upon privateness requirements.
The Nationwide Meeting’s regulation committee permitted the system, but additionally voted to restrict the momentary program’s period till December 24, 2024, as an alternative of June 2025.
The plan pitched by the French authorities consists of experimental large-scale, real-time digital camera programs supported by an algorithm to identify suspicious conduct, together with unsupervised baggage and alarming crowd actions like stampedes.
Earlier this week, civil society teams in France and past — together with La Quadrature du Web, Entry Now and Amnesty Worldwide — penned an op-ed in Le Monde elevating issues about what they argued was a “worrying precedent” that France might set within the EU.
There’s a threat that the measures, pitched as momentary, might develop into everlasting, and so they possible wouldn’t adjust to the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, the teams additionally argue.
About 90 left-leaning lawmakers signed a petition initiated by La Quadrature du Web to scrap Article 7, which incorporates the AI-powered surveillance system. They failed, nonetheless, to assemble sufficient votes to have it deleted from the invoice.
Lawmakers additionally voted to make sure most of the people is better informed of the place the cameras are and to involve the cybersecurity agency ANSSI on high of the privateness regulator CNIL. Additionally they widened the pool of pictures and information that can be utilized to coach the algorithms forward of the Olympics.
The invoice will go to a full plenary vote on March 21 for last approval.
