Today, La Quadrature du Net publishes the English version of its booklet on algorithmic videosurveillance (“AVS”). This document gathers all our work on this topic, in the hope of making it as accessible as possible. It explain what AVS is, how it works, the economical and political interests at stake in its implementation, and the political project of repression and discrimination that this technology serves. This publication aims to help activists around the world understand this new type of surveillance better in order to fight it. You can download it here.
Over the past years, we have tried to shed light on algorithmic videosurveillance software. This type of software analyzes CCTV footage to categorize and classify our body, our gait, our movements, our clothes or even our face to detect odd or suspect individuals in the hustle and bustle of the streets. We have been campaigning against it everywhere, in local groups, before courts,and even in Parliament. Now, we want this fight to spread outside of France, as we see the rise and spread of the AVS market in other countries. Since opacity and secrecy is one of the biggest obstacle to organize this struggle, we find it particularly important that information spreads across Europe. We hope the English version of our booklet can help more people to dig into this subject.
We think this is even more important as we see numerous projects being developed in many countries. In Italy, the “Marvel” and “Protector” projects in Trento were declared illegal whereas the “Argo” project in Torino is still running. In Germany, AVS is deployed in Mannheim and Hamburg, while it’s implemented in railway stations in Spain. Moreover, reports from the French government provide us with valuable information on the state of algorithmic video surveillance in other countries through an international comparison of the use of these technologies (available here and here, in French). In these documents, we learn for example that software developed by Briefcam, an Israeli company bought by Canon, is used in Belgium and Italy, aside from being deployed in hundreds of French cities. We also learn that, for 18 months, the German Federal police tested a semi-automatic video analysis software called Investigator, developed by Digivod, which includes physical characteristics and facial recognition.
Our concerns and our will to broaden the fight to allies outside of France is also justified by the recurrent statements of French companies bragging about conquering new markets around the world. For example, a start-up called XXII currently aims for Spain, while a software called Veesion, used to analyze behaviors in supermarkets, has now obtained contracts in Portugal. Meanwhile, big French companies such as Thales and Idemia are still promoting software for “safe cities” around the globe.
In 2019, we launched our initiative called “Technopolice” to face the rise of biometric surveillance, sensors and cameras in the cities of France. Numerous local groups were created in Marseille, Montpellier, Lyon, Arles or Paris to fight against digital policing. Now the fight against algorithmic surveillance must become a European and an international struggle.
Download, read, print and share our booklet available here! And continue the fight where you live. If you find information regarding surveillance projects in your cities and countries, make it public and be vocal on it! Let’s fight back together !