Paris Olympics Security: Unprecedented AI Surveillance Creates Another Risk

Updated July 26, 2024 at 4:10 p.m.*

PARIS — A middle-aged man walks around the stadium where the Olympic track and field events are going to take place. Outside, everything is quiet. One can only hear the echoes of applause when a high jumper manages to clear the bar, or sprinters finish their race or one of the stars who will compete that afternoon appears on the jumbo screens.

Then suddenly, three police cars arrive at full speed, cut off the man’s path and arrest him in just a few seconds. A camera had recorded him and an algorithm had raised the alarm: he must have made some unexpected movement, or perhaps there was an abandoned object nearby, or an “unforeseen” gathering of people. Or perhaps he looks a lot like someone who participated a few months ago in a protest against the war in Gaza…

From the command center, someone had registered the anomaly, assessed its credibility and sent the order to the nearest patrols.

No, this is not a scene from some futuristic show, but something that could happen during the Olympic Games held in Paris and other French towns. This will be the first worldwide-level event utilizing an algorithmic video surveillance system (VSS) to help ensure security measures.

More than 400 cameras will be added to the 4,000 already operating in Paris and placed at the entrances to stadiums, streets and nearby transport, to ensure that there are as few blind spots as possible security-wise during the most followed sporting competition on the planet, with around one and a half million visitors expected to attend.

[UPDATE: Reuters reports that a series of pre-dawn attacks struck France’s TGV high-speed train network. There were no injuries, but the operation triggered travel chaos and exposed security gaps ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony later on Friday.]

What is unprecedented about this system is not simply the number of cameras, but what happens afterwards with what they record. The French government has contracted four companies (Videtics, Orange Business, ChapsVision and Wintics) so that their algorithms can analyze the images, spot and warn about possible attacks, assaults, traffic violations or dangerous crowds.

The French Interior Ministry maintains that the entire system’s only purpose is security, that fundamental rights will be respected and — a key point — that there will be no facial recognition on the people recorded.

And yet, at least 38 civil society organizations in France have warned that the measures to be implemented are contrary to international law and described the system as “intrusive” and “disproportionate.”

Yellow vests and Gaza protests

Felip Daza, researcher at the Observatory of Human Rights and Business of the Mediterranean region (ODHE) in Barcelona, points out that these systems can recognize emotions, are “very invasive” and “potentially violate” rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, the rights of assembly and non-discrimination.

People change their behavior when they are being recorded.

Daza says it has been proven that people change their behavior when they are being recorded by security cameras on the street, and this unprecedented device is being implemented in a context of repression of protests in the country, especially after the demonstrations of the yellow vests and against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Neither the Spanish nor the International Olympic Committees have responded to La Marea about the doubts raised by the VSA system that will be used in the Olympic Games.

Becoming walking ID cards

Although the Government, the French Police and the contracted companies reiterate that the cameras will not be equipped with facial recognition, many organizations believe this is a red line that can be crossed any time. “The software used for video surveillance based on artificial intelligence can easily allow facial recognition. It is a simple setting,” says Katia Roux, technology specialist at Amnesty International in France.

Beyond the technical possibility, France has already developed facial recognition and “predictive” systems in numerous localities, according to the mapping of the Tecnopolice platform. The presence of Briefcam cameras, a company of Israeli origin, in more than 200 French localities, is also controversial.

For years, French organizations have denounced the fact that VSS systems allow facial recognition to be activated in just a few clicks, as shown in its own instruction manual available online. Briefcam is also currently offering its surveillance systems in numerous Palestinian neighborhoods in the occupied West Bank, according to NGO Who Profits.

A “safe city”

The southern French city of Nice is the epitome of the “safe city” idea with video surveillance combined with cameras in public spaces, drones and police patrols. All the images are sent to a database center, where a program integrating face recognition technology runs algorithms developed by artificial intelligence to compare them with gigantic databases.

Algorithms inherit human prejudices: about ethnicity, skin color, neighborhood.

This raises another problem for organizations opposed to these devices: when fed with police information, algorithms also inherit “human prejudices” about ethnicity, skin color, neighborhood of residence, etc., leading to an automatized form of discrimination. Which means that the man surprised by the patrol outside the stadium is much more likely to have dark skin or to be wearing a certain type of clothing.

Still, police organizations such as Scotland Yard insist that it will mark a ‘before and after’ in the fight against crime in terms of efficiency. British organization Big Brother Watch considers that these systems “turn us into walking identity cards.”

One exception fits all

France authorized video surveillance in 2019, but the French Parliament gave the green light to incorporate artificial intelligence into security systems on an experimental basis in the spring of 2023. The Olympic Games will thus become a sort of laboratory where these systems can be tested. To that extent, the government has approved a law allowing the use of facial recognition until 2025 (which they assure they will not use), as long as it is within the framework of “national security.” An exception that organizations fear could become customary.

Furthermore, the security exception is exactly what would allow France to stay aligned with European Union’s laws. Because if, at first, the EU regulations prohibited any mass surveillance technology through artificial intelligence, in December 2023 it opened the door to its use for that specific reason.

“The EU is increasingly hiding behind the prioritization of security and everything points to the use of this type of surveillance on a permanent basis,” worries Carlos de las Heras, spokesperson for Amnesty International in Spain.

Not just in France

Of course, France or the European Union are not isolated cases, and other countries such as the United Kingdom, China, Russia or Brazil have already implemented surveillance systems based on algorithms and able to identify individuals. In fact, as Heras points out, facial recognition was already implemented in the United States during the Black Lives Matter protests.

The very sophisticated surveillance systems put in place will be here to stay.

He also stresses the fact that the use of this technology can lead to the creation of profiles based on ethnicity or national origin that are “extremely discriminatory” and could have a “self-censorship effect” causing many people to stop participating in any protest for fear of the consequences derived from their identification.

The Paris Games will mark a turning point, one way or another. “There will be no turning back after these Olympic Games,” says ODHE researcher Carlos Díaz. “The very sophisticated surveillance systems put in place will be here to stay.”

So beyond remembering who won which medals, we may also soon understand how this Olympics forever changed the way States face threats to their security, and repress any form of protest.

*Originally posted on July 25, 2024, this article was updated July 26, 2024 with enriched media and news of train arson attacks.