Lausanne
Rejection of facial and biometric recognition
The legislature has unanimously declared itself in favor of a law prohibiting the use, on Lausanne territory, of the latest generation video surveillance technologies deemed “invasive”.
Published
Elected officials have said no to the use of facial and biometric recognition technologies in video surveillance on Lausanne soil.
afp
Elected officials who vote and a vote count table that sports an exclusively green color… On Wednesday evening, Lausanne municipal councilors from all sides showed their reluctance regarding the use of facial and biometric recognition technologies in video surveillance.
They thus approved two draft regulations and a postulate presented by the socialist Benoît Gaillard to prohibit the deployment of these technologies on Lausanne soil. “Unlike conventional CCTV, where someone had to look for you on previously recorded video footage, in a system with automated recognition, you are somehow already recognized and already searched for before someone even finds out. idea or desire”, summed up Benoît Gaillard.
“I defend innovation but I am against a facial recognition program where every little gesture is analyzed and scrutinized,” said PLR Denise Gemesio. “Lausanne police do not use this dreaded technology,” defended Pierre-Antoine Hildbrand.
First French-speaking city
Lausanne could thus be the first French-speaking city to provide legal provisions to prohibit biometric facial recognition systems in public spaces. As a reminder, last autumn, the Legislative of the city of Saint-Gall declared itself in favor of banning the use of facial recognition software coupled with video surveillance in order to avoid “mass surveillance at large ladder.”
A few weeks ago, in the face of public pressure, SBB gave up a project customer follow-up with statements of passengers by segment, according to age, gender or size, in particular for commercial purposes.
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(apn)