Amnesty International petition against facial recognition in France

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An Amnesty International petition calls for action before facial recognition in the country “becomes a reality”. Nearing 100,000 signatures, the petition is open until July 31, 2024. The demands then aim to force the French State to consider a law to ban facial recognition for identification purposes in public spaces. Indeed, the non-governmental organization notes that the country is resorting to an increase in the use of surveillance technologies. Concerns are growing about the use that could be made of them thanks to facial recognition.  

As a first step in this direction, France legalized the use of algorithmic video surveillance during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These are nothing more or less than cameras using artificial intelligence to screen, live, the slightest movements of the population to detect any abnormal situation. A law that was voted, according to the organization, by an accelerated procedure not calling for any real public debate. With the passage of this law, the country becomes the first in the European Union to legalize, on an experimental basis, this type of surveillance. A real turning point, which could pave the way for “the use of even more intrusive technologies such as facial recognition”.  

Experiments have multiplied since this text, with the use of facial recognition in a stadium in Metz, algorithmic video surveillance at the Gare du Nord (Paris), and even facial recognition in a high school in Marseille.  

Enough to invite it to become a greater reality than what the discourse has suggested until now. Insidiously, the habit of this use is created and could become anchored for longer than expected.  

According to Amnesty, “the use of facial recognition to identify people in public spaces represents a serious threat to our rights. A tool that infringes on our privacy, threatens our fundamental freedoms and increases discrimination.” 

In this sense, the French authorities are showing a “growing interest” in these surveillance technologies. The rapid deployment of facial recognition is to be feared. The organization therefore calls for strong measures to be taken to stop this mechanism before it is too late.  

The petition therefore calls for pressure on parliamentarians to adopt a law that would prohibit, without concession, facial recognition for identification purposes in public spaces. The individual and collective freedoms of the French are at stake. A subject that we must therefore address in order to impose limits on it.  

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