France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
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Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#2>France says the ID system won’t be used to keep tabs on residents. Unlike in China and Singapore, the country won’t be integrating the facial recognition biometric into citizens’ identity databases
That's what they all say but once the systems exists the temptation is there to use it and each successive bunch of authoritarians will use it a little bit more. They don't even need to be more than a small minority of government to do it so long as they do it in small incremental steps (integrating it with more and more government functions).
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#3> Saying it wants to make the state more efficient,
That is bold. Normally when governments want to destroy your privacy they claim they want to combat terrorism or something more horrible. They are going with making their processes more efficient?
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#4One day we will regret this computer revolution in ways that we currently can't begin to imagine.
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#5This is a rather poor and click-baity article.
According to the French government's page on this system [1] (in French):
The system is an app that generates login details to allow online access to (public?) services.
You install the app on your smartphone. It uses NFC (I suppose) to read your picture (also other details?) from your passport's chip, and stores it locally on the phone. It then uses this to perform facial recognition using the phone camera in order to identify the phone's user. No biometric data leave the phone according to [1].
The stated aim is to allow people to conduct administrative tasks (forms, applications) fully online where it is not currently possible because a "hard ID check" is required. It will not be compulsory.
It sounds a bit like Apple's Face ID but backed by official documents (passports) and with the government's seal of approval, some sort of passport check performed by your smartphone.
[1] https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere...
As an aside comment, in France most people have a passport, and everyone has an ID card, which requires having photo and fingerprints taken. So this does not give the government anything that they don't already have (or could have) and it seems that they took precautions to avoid unnecessary transmissions of biometric data.
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#6Android only? I’m sure it’ll get an iOS version too, but what about people who don’t have smartphones? In Denmark we’re seeing more and more public services move to Apps. It used to be that there was an offline version, like in the case of our “NemID”, but now we’re talking about digital only drivers licenses and social security cards.
The private sector had long embraced mobile apps, and it’s really hard to buy tickets, do banking and so on without a smartphone, but now we’re truly locking people into their mobile devices. And these devices aren’t free, I mean, it’s not just going to be “Android” only, it’s going to be “google play” or “Apple store” only. I’m not sure that’s very democratic.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll absolutely use these things and I currently use most of the available ones with great satisfaction, but it does concern me if we’re locking public services into privately owned ecosystems.
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#7>France says the ID system won’t be used to keep tabs on residents. Unlike in China and Singapore, the country won’t be integrating the facial recognition biometric into citizens’ identity databases That's what they all say but once the systems exists the temptation is there to use it and each successive bunch of authoritarians will use it a little bit more. They don't even need to be more than a small minority of go…
> That's what they all say but once the systems exists the temptation is there to use it and each successive bunch of authoritarians will use it a little bit more.
Couldn't agree more. Just look at the Aadhaar system of India. As an Indian we are witnessing exact what you just said. It was created to stop leakage in Public Distribution System. But over the years it is made (not literally but still)mandatory for everywhere. If one google, they will find plenty of news where resident were denied access to basic services such as school/college admission, Hospital etc.
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#8Can we give french citizens the benefit of the doubt here. Living there I can tell you the resident are much quicker to point out these new systems as fascist than, say, Americans.
Even in Paris, the number of surveillance cameras was dramatically lower than London. The police would tout the crime fighting advantages of having these cameras in certain areas, someone would write an opinion on Nazi occupied Paris, the camera talk would go dormant for a few more years. New director arrives and wants to install cameras in certain areas...
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#9One day we will regret this computer revolution in ways that we currently can't begin to imagine.
I would say quite a few sci-fi authors have done a good job on this ...
Re: France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
#10I don't know much about infosec but I know enough to see that this tool is not ready. It's really scary.
Also the fact that it's not discussed much, here in France. It's the first time I've heard of it. From a country that has had a government agency for protecting digital liberties since 1978 (which made laws about what data you can and cannot keep as a software provider) it's a big change of direction.