Why biometrics are key to a safe Paris Olympics

This article first appeared on Source Security.

The European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) framework represents some of the toughest and most secure privacy laws in the world. Their creation signaled the EU’s dedication to individual privacy rights and generated new standards and requirements for an organisation inside or outside of the EU wanting to do business in the region.

This privacy stance raises an interesting question: to what extent (if any) will France be utilising AI-assisted security and biometrics – at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympic Games?

AI-assisted security systems

As France prepares to host this global event, certain AI-assisted security systems like algorithmic video monitoring have been tested and are planned to be in use. The country also passed a law with a legal framework for addressing provisions of hosting the Games in their country, Law No. 2023-380.

These technologies will support the police and security efforts to detect sudden crowd movements, irregular vehicle, and pedestrian movements, abandoned objects, people lying on the ground, and more, any of which could indicate an attack.

Local connectivity

Such technologies, which can be connected directly to localised command centers and police departments, provide an opportunity to prevent deadly incidents like the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

There are signs that citizens of the EU are becoming more receptive to such measures, with one recent French poll finding that an overwhelming number of respondents (89 percent) support the use of smart cameras in stadiums for this purpose.

Biometric technology

The general public and private use of biometric technology (face matching, face liveness, and other biometric modalities), on the other hand, continues to run into challenges with adoption in this privacy-focused region.

For the most part, laws ban facial recognition, permitting its use only once someone has been convicted or is suspected of having committed a serious crime.

Limitations of video surveillance

Limiting the utility of biometrics to only video surveillance for an event of the Paris Olympics’ magnitude is not the best approach. The ability to quickly identify or de-identify possible suspects from regular attendees greatly strengthens the activities of the police and helps protect the rights of regular attendees.

Consider the example of New York City detectives using facial recognition to identify a man who, in 2019, left a pair of potential bombs in the Fulton Street subway station.

Benefits of facial recognition technology

With facial recognition technology, it took only one hour to identify the suspect – a process that previously would have taken several hours or even days, leaving the possibility of further damage unresolved.

Citing yet another example, many believe that the use of facial recognition could have expedited and solved the Boston Marathon bombing tragedy much sooner and more efficiently, aiding investigators who reportedly had to sift through 120,000 photos and nearly 13,000 videos before identifying the perpetrator.

Need for real-time video

With an estimated 16 million visitors expected to descend upon France for the Games – and an environment that is harder to protect from bad actors – is limiting the use of biometrics to video surveillance the most effective?

In our minds, in certain high-urgency cases, such as tracking kidnapping cases or possible terrorism activity, it should be permissible for facial recognition to be applied to recorded video in real-time and without delay.

Public safety

Beyond this obvious good that biometrics can bring from a public safety perspective, there are other ways that biometrics can be woven into the fabric of the Summer Olympics to support a faster, more enjoyable experience for all.

Consider queue management. In a few weeks, an estimated 2.3 to 3.1 million ticket holders will form lines to access Olympic events.

Fingerprint scanning technology

If fingerprints were captured at the point of ticket purchase and fingerprint scanning technologies made available on-site, people could pass through lines in mere fractions of a second, versus having to fumble for a paper ticket that may be torn or damaged, or an e-ticket on a phone with a dead battery.

This would speed up the processing of queues tremendously.

Olympics-focused gambling activity

Another area where biometrics can be beneficial is in Olympics-focused gambling activity, which is expected to gain steam as the Games get underway. Biometrics can be used to match facial images with legal documentation for age verification, and then combined with geofencing to ensure gambling participants are of legal age, depending on where they are physically based.

Biometrics also makes it possible to identify, beyond the shadow of a doubt, all of the activities of particular individuals, which can help track nefarious activities like money laundering.

Evolution of privacy and security

We believe biometrics can be a force for major good in our society and around various facets of the upcoming Paris Olympics, most notably public safety.

It will be interesting to watch both the 2024 Summer Olympics and the ongoing evolution of privacy and security laws and practices in France and the European Union.