Marie-Laure Denis, chairwoman of the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés), has advised the French government not to contemplate employing face recognition for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
According to a report by Franceinfo (in French), the head of the French data protection authority mentioned a bill examined in parliament on Tuesday, stating that she sent a letter to the legislature outlining her opposition to the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technologies at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Specifically, Denis stated that even if the proposal to incorporate face recognition in the measure was rejected by the Senate's legislation committee, it might still be reintroduced during the plenary session.
In other words, while the measure does not contain face recognition in its current form, it does not prevent the use of "artificial intelligence to aid the process of ensuring the competition."
The warning was sent hours before the Senate's plenary session on Tuesday, which voted on the measure granting the state unprecedented monitoring powers.
In the past year, France has made a noticeable push toward face recognition adoption. In July 2022, for example, the mayor of Nice asked for the deployment of such devices to avert events similar to the Stade de France riots.
Recently, however, a Senate Committee hearing revealed that there are still major differences of opinion between politicians interested in using face recognition and those, like Denis, who view it as an excessive monitoring tool.
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