While the government wants to generalize the use of algorithmic video surveillance, a report published on October 28 and drafted by the general inspectorate of the administration (IGA), the general inspectorate of the national police (IGPN) and the general inspectorate of the Gendarmerie National (IGGN) reviews the use of facial recognition tools by authorities. A practice that is prohibited by law.
Commissioned by Gérald Darmanin at the end of 2023 following the revelations of the information site Disclose and an investigation opened by the CNIL, the report reveals at least one case of use of the facial recognition tool by the gendarmerie. An act “outside the legal framework”, admits the report, carried out by the central criminal intelligence service (SCRC) in 2023.
Briefcam, video analysis software
According to the document, this first identification by facial recognition occurred during the Nanterre riots, in the summer of 2023, after the death of Nahel. The investigators thus attempted to identify the perpetrators of the damage in the town of Fosses (95) by “injecting” into the Briefcam software two photographs of the suspects from the Criminal Records Processing file (TAJ).
If the software recognized these people, the investigation ultimately showed that their presence at the scene of damage was not related to any involvement in such acts. Therefore, they were not involved.
As the report explains, the software used is called Briefcam. Used on around 70 police and gendarmerie computers across France (with an estimated budget of €1.3 million), it has historically been commissioned for video stream analysis functions, without facial recognition.
Thus, Briefcam is able to automatically analyze long hours of video recording to identify an individual based on physical details, such as clothing, but also a vehicle based on visual characteristics. But as the report explains, in 2018 the company launched a facial recognition function, this time based on an analysis of facial features.
Feature enabled by default
“The provision of services, as of November 2018, of a version of Briefcam that includes a facial recognition function could therefore constitute a source of legal vulnerability for users of the software, especially since this functionality is present by default and can only be disabled after IT department administrator intervention,” the document specifies.
The authors of the report, who regret that “no user training system was provided”, tried to find out whether the researchers used this function. As they explain, the case identified may not be the only one, to the point that they had to content themselves with the statements of the researchers who worked at Briefcam during the interviews with them.
Due to the lack of record of the history of manipulations carried out by BriefCam users, “the mission was not able to physically carry out a computer control of a possible activation by the user services of the facial recognition functionality of the BriefCam software”, specifies the document. .
Although the report mentions a tool with potentially valuable efficiency, it regrets the limited use of Briefcam in view of the cost generated by this IT solution. In total, the Briefcam has been used 563 times since its introduction into service, between the police and the gendarmerie. Or about 2300 euros per use.
Source: BFM TV