The National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil) said it had warned the municipality of Valenciennes (North) about the use of its video protection device provided by Huawei, “particularly intrusive”, confirming information by Mediapart.
Valenciennes “has entered into an agreement with the company Huawei whereby it provides the city with a fleet of high definition cameras – deployed from April 2018 – free of charge – as well as three software for automated analysis of the images captured by the video protection system “, reports the CNIL in a warning dated May 12, addressed to the town hall and partially posted by Mediapart.
The “provision” of cameras “allows the Huawei company to have a showcase in France”, we can read in the report of the control carried out on the spot on February 12, 2020, also posted online by Mediapart.
The various tools made available include “an automated license plate reading device” as well as “assisted image analysis devices”.
The automated reading of license plates “has, according to the indications provided by the municipality, the objective of responding automatically to requests from the police”, explains the Commission in its warning. However, “a processing of automated reading of the license plates could not be implemented lawfully by the municipality of Valenciennes in order to answer the requisitions of the police force”, she estimated.
Regarding assisted image analysis devices, “as is”, “the need” for its processing “does not appear to be established with regard to the purposes pursued”, is “likely to generate a high risk for rights and the freedoms of natural persons “and allows” the systematic surveillance of persons moving about in public space on a city scale “.
“The warning is not a public decision but was intended to warn the data controller that the device envisaged but not used by the municipality did not comply with the law in force concerning the protection of personal data”, Cnil told AFP on Tuesday.
“No sanction or formal notice has been made public in this area, but it is a recurring subject of control”, added the Commission.
The town hall, for its part, did not respond to AFP’s requests. On its website, it indicates that in this city of 43,000 inhabitants, “308 cameras were installed in 2019 (183 cameras on public roads, 35 at the station and 90 in buildings open to the public)”.
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