The CNIL has published its final position on smart cameras in public spaces

LinkedIn publication by Digeiz :

We are lucky to have such well-balanced institutions as the CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés

We say it loud and clear, with our hands on the ❤️: Long live France!

Explanations by the team:

In April 2021, we were told that our “smart camera” technology did not comply with the RGPD and was therefore unlawful, because the constraints linked to the implementation of the right to object overrode our customers’ legitimate interest in using it. It wiped out 4 years of R&D and above all all development prospects.

We quickly contacted the CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, to tell them that there was an oversight; Nicolas Bouvattier set up a working group at ACN – Alliance pour la Confiance Numérique with the excellent Yoann Kassianides, William Eldin, Xavier Fischer, Thibault David, Quentin Barenne and FERAUD Alban on trusted AI, to bring out a voice for the sector; we spoke to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance with Dorian Lamarre.

We have always believed that our AI, which generates statistics on pedestrian flows, is the best way to reconcile the statistics needed for our clients’ new business with respect for privacy.

In October 2021, Bertrand JULIEN-LAFERRIERE, Nicolas Bouvattier and Julien Desmarais had the honour of being heard in plenary session by the CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés . It was presented to us as a rigid, out-of-touch organisation. The truth is different: it listened to us attentively, on our challenges as entrepreneurs, on neural networks, on international competition, on what we were doing to respect the RGPD… Special mention to the Usual Suspects demo Julien Desmarais

This week, the CNIL published its final position on smart cameras in public spaces, of which here are two extracts (position & article on CNIL.fr):

1 / “similarly, the processing of data to analyse the type of frequentation of a shopping centre on the basis of criteria (gender and age group for example) to enable the manager to choose the most appropriate advertising; similarly for a device that allows the counting of visitor flows to calculate the rate of a commercial lease based on frequentation.

2 / “When “augmented” cameras are used to produce statistics, made up of anonymous data and not having an immediate operational purpose, they can already be deployed, without any specific framework”.

This is a vital green light that opens up great prospects in Europe!