Facial recognition: experimentation first and debate after, according to Cédric O.

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Regarding the thorny subject of facial recognition, the time is not for debate, but for "Experimentation", says Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O. The cart before the horse?

The Secretary of State for Digital does not budge: France will launch a phase of experimentation with facial recognition. Cédric O had already said this at the end of 2019 and has just repeated it during the presentation of the 2019 Barometer of French confidence in digital technology.

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“What History shows is that when there is a technology available, in the end we end up using it”, said the former treasurer of the presidential party LREM. For Cédric O, it is better to Review the advantages and the limits of the system now rather than to wait “That one day there is an attack in France and that a government decides to go there overnight”. The reasoning has not moved an inch: according to the Secretary of State, it is necessary to launch this phase of experimentation and then “Have a public debate and make decisions”.

Order of priorities

An order of priorities already widely criticized during the round table which brought together politicians, companies and associations at the end of December 2019. Indeed, opponents of facial recognition fear that we are already at “The next step, asking yourself how to make these tools acceptable”, while they are already widely criticized.

The Cnil is very reserved on the subject, La Quadrature du Net is upwind against many projects of smart cities, and specialists never stop pointing the finger at the more than average reliability of this kind of system.

France “Will never go to the Chinese example” 

However, this did not prevent many municipalities from deploying facial recognition systems in public places, such as in Nice where the councilor Christian Estrosi defends tooth and nail this “Weapon of the 21st century”. Moreover, it was not necessary to wait for an attack for the city of Marseille to set up portals for facial recognition at the entrance to a high school.

The only guarantee offered by Cédric O was to assert that France “Will never go to the Chinese example” with algorithms that “Let everyone recognize everyone on the street”. Still, he said there are opportunities “In the field of health, private use, public order and security”, while admitting not knowing “If facial recognition is effective in recognizing people on the public highway”.

The purpose of this experimental phase would be to allow the government to form its own opinion “According to scientific protocols which must be public” to find possible “Red lines” not to cross. The debate on acceptability seems to him already settled.

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