privacy

Abandoned luggage and unexpected crowds - real-time cameras will use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect suspicious activity on the streets of Paris during next summer's Olympics. But civil rights groups say the technology is a threat to civil liberties, as the BBC's Hugh Schofield reports.

"We are not China; we do not want to be Big Brother," says François Mattens, whose Paris-based AI company is bidding for part of the Olympics video surveillance contract.

Under a recent law, police will be able to use CCTV algorithms to pick up anomalies such as crowd rushes, fights or unattended bags.

The law explicitly rules out using facial recognition technology, as adopted by China, for example, in order to trace "suspicious" individuals.

But opponents say it is a thin end of the wedge. Even though the experimental period allowed by the law ends in March 2025, they fear the French government's real aim is to make the new security provisions permanent.