The Cnil, French gendarme of personal data, alerted Wednesday on the rapid and uncontrolled use of "smart" cameras in the fight against the coronavirus. These devices are intended in particular to measure the temperature, to check the wearing of the mask, or to ensure compliance with social distancing.
"If the Cnil is fully aware of the health situation, it appears to it, however, that certain systems envisaged do not respect the legal framework applicable to the protection of personal data", she said in a press release.
# COVID19 Thermal cameras, "intelligent" cameras ... The CNIL calls for vigilance! 👉 https://t.co/FhKpx8SgjX
➡️ The applicable regulations 👉 https://t.co/nubPRxWu1y pic.twitter.com/6h1AWJjHxc
"A sense of surveillance among citizens"
According to the commission, "their uncontrolled development presents the risk of generalizing a feeling of surveillance among citizens, of creating a phenomenon of habituation and trivialization of intrusive technologies, and of generating increased surveillance, likely to undermine the proper functioning of our democratic society ". These devices "most often lead either to process sensitive data without the consent of the parties concerned (in particular the temperature), or to rule out the right to object", also warns the Cnil, which requests "specific normative framework".
Thermal cameras, which instantly take the temperature remotely from the infrared radiation emitted by the body, also present "the risk of not locating infected people since some are asymptomatic" and that the system can "be bypassed by taking antipyretic drugs (which reduce body temperature without treating the causes of fever) ”.
Several systems already deployed
This alert comes when thermal cameras have been deployed in France by certain employers - such as Renault on its Flins site or in Amazon warehouses - and in places of transport, such as Paris-Charles-de- Gaulle. Pierre Béder, the president (LR) of the Yvelines departmental council, also presented his project in mid-May to equip public establishments in the department with “thermal gantries”.
Since May 6, around ten cameras have also been installed in the Châtelet-Les Halles metro station in Paris to assess whether passers-by are wearing a mask, as part of an experiment with Datakalab.
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