The CNIL, the data protection gendarme, has considered the use of “major” cameras in tobacco offices to evaluate the age of “neither necessary nor proportionate” customers, in an opinion published this Friday.
These cameras, equipped with artificial intelligence -based software (AI), are used as part of the sale of prohibited products for minors, such as cigarettes, alcohol or gambling.
A “not necessary” technology
“Following several requests,” the CNIL evaluated the compliance of these systems to the French Law and the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and decided against them.
“The previous analysis of people’s face by a chamber to estimate their age does not seem necessary,” because the verification of identity documents remains the only way to guarantee most customers, the authority indicates in their opinion.
Requested by AFP, the authority, however, said that “in the absence of complaints from related people, to date, the CNIL wishes to give to tobaconists concerned to comply.”
An experimental deployment
This team has already been implemented locally in several tobacco offices: at the end of 2024, the Federation of Tobaconists of Paris-De-France had, for example, to indicate that it had launched an experiment in 14 establishments.
Requested, the National Confederation of Tobaconists indicated “take note” of the opinion of the CNIL and will be expressed on the subject in the next few days.
In a reaction transmitted to AFP, the alliance against tobacco (ACT) was praised in this opinion.
“The deployment of age verification devices among tobaconists does not constitute in any case a satisfactory response to breach of the prohibition of the sale of tobacco and vaping products to minors,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
