Gérald Darmanin wants to investigate his own teams. The interior minister announced on Monday that he had requested an administrative investigation into his ministry's use of facial recognition via video surveillance software. He was reacting to the publication of information by the investigative website Disclose according to which the police were using video surveillance software published by the Israeli company "BriefCam", one of whose features allows facial recognition.
"We use BriefCam like other software, but under the authority of a magistrate," he said on France 5. But, no, as far as I know, we don't use facial recognition." Stressing that the General Directorate of the National Police had recalled in February the ban on the use of facial recognition, Gérald Darmanin announced that he had "asked for an administrative investigation within three months", so that "there is no doubt".
"If people have used it, regardless of the instructions of the director general of the national police, I will obviously draw all the consequences," he warned. The CNIL, the independent authority that guardians the privacy of the French, announced last Wednesday the launch of a "control procedure" targeting the Ministry of the Interior after the publication of the Disclose investigation. In the event of shortcomings, the ministry would be subject to penalties of up to €20 million in the case of an ordinary procedure.
