At least ten EU countries have recourse to this technology, when eight more plan to do so in the years to come.
In Europe, the benefit that can represent the facial recognition to ensure the security of a country is an idea that has made its way. Evidenced by the results of a study conducted by the NGO, Algorithm Watch, published last December. According to the organization, at least ten countries have already equipped their police forces of this technological tool. And this figure is expected to increase in the years to come.
A situation that has pushed the european Union to address the issue, in presenting this Wednesday a “white paper” on the facial recognition, with a series of actions. There is no doubt that some will relate to the safety, a topic that divides as much as it concerned Europe.
READ ALSO >> Europe torn on the future of facial recognition
Your support is essential. Subscribe for $ 1 support Us
In France, where the national Commission on informatics and liberties (CNIL) ensures the grain, it happens that, for the needs of the case, the justice had recourse to the artificial intelligence. It then compares images collected during a survey with the data of the processing file of the legal background (TAJ), in order to confuse a suspect.
This was, for example, the case in Lyon in November 2019. A man suspected of stealing a truck full of goods into the warehouse where he worked could be adversely affected through facial recognition software GASPARD, who was identified from images of video surveillance and file TAJ.
A process which, however, cannot be done on “letters rogatory from a judge of instruction”, stresses Didier Baichère, a member of the 1?? constituency of Yvelines (Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, france) and a member of the parliamentary Office for evaluation of scientific and technological choices. “In addition, it is not because you are in the file TAJ, the only one used by the judicial police for facial recognition, that you have something to criticize you about”, he says.
experiments in Nice
The security of daily life is also a sector in which this technology is dangled in many advances, as in Nice, where she was tested in February 2019, during the carnival. An experiment was conducted three times, and “framed by the CNIL (Commission nationale informatique and freedoms), that we asked a number of requirements, such as obtaining the agreement of all concerned,” says Véronique Borré, general manager assistant to the city hall of Nice, in charge in particular of issues of safety.
READ ALSO >> face Recognition : don’t panic !
In total, 5000 people have accepted that their photograph is used. The goal was that the algorithm facial recognition to identify in the crowd the faces of some of the staff of the community without criminalizing all other participants. “And the result was very convincing,” says Véronique Borré.
“We had a hugely successful, despite the fact that we worked at night with little light, the pictures which were sometimes forty years ago and people wearing stick with a beard or glasses. But we have not had any false-positive”, explains she. But despite its success, the operation has not been extended, the CNIL framing very strictly these experiments.
another practice, however, tended to generalise. The practice of using facial recognition as a security check. This is for example the case in some French airports, such as those of Orly and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle at the time of passing the border, as well as gare du Nord train Station for passengers travelling on Eurostar, and since 2017.
facial recognition “on the fly”
This is the other side of the English Channel, England multiplies the use of facial recognition for security checks, but not only. The country has also developed this technology to try to identify suspects, as was experienced in the Metropolitan Police (MET), the city police of London, in the summer of 2019.
The latter had conducted several tests at the Westfield shopping centre, in the district of Stratford, consisting of a matching on the faces of people moving in the crowd with those of the individuals contained on a list of suspects. But a report had shown “gaps important operational” after this experience, reports Forbes.
ALSO READ >> China : facial recognition now mandatory to buy a new phone
London, however, has decided to continue the exercise since 17 February, becoming the first police western to use facial recognition for crime prevention, note Konbini, which quotes the press release of the police English. “When people come [in a specific area], their image is immediately disseminated to the facial recognition system live”, adding that this system contains “a list of the faces of the offenders sought by the police or the courts, or those that pose a risk to themselves or others”.
This is what we call the facial recognition called the “the fly” also present in which Italy has developed a système, automated image recognition (AIRS), accurate Algortihm Watch.
Belgium and Spain, the only country to not use them
facial recognition “on the fly” does not, for the time, not practiced in France, nor in a large number of countries of the european Union. According to Algortihm Watch, eight countries are planning to use facial recognition to their police forces in the years to come. Among them, Finland or Hungary. In Estonia, a database of photos to the destination of the various departments of the State should see the light of day in 2022.
Read our complete file
facial recognition in question
thermal imaging cameras at charles de gaulle airport to detect possible carriers of the Covid-19 facial Recognition : Clearview AI, which stores 3 billion faces, was hacked facial recognition, a new threat to our freedoms ?
Of their sides, Belgium and Spain are the only countries, on the 27, not to have recourse to it in terms of security. These last two, however, have put in place recognition systems of the body. They use the walking style or the clothing of the individuals to follow them,” explains the NGO, which specifies that if these systems can, in theory, recognize faces, this feature has been disabled, “pending legal approval”.
