The French government is planning to introduce a mandatory national ID programme based on facial recognition, Bloomberg reported. The system, called Alicem, will give people a secure digital identity and make the state more efficient, the government said. Alicem was meant to launch at Christmas but will now come out in in November, despite the many privacy, security and consent concerns it has raised. French data regulator Cnil is against the programme, saying it breaches European rules of consent. Privacy group Quadrature du Net is challenging the plan in court but the case, filed in July, will not see the the launch delayed. Regarding security, hackers were able to break into the system very quickly this past year, raising concerns about the state’s security standards.
The Android-only app, with a blazon of the French republic, will be the only way for residents to create a legal digital ID, with facial recognition its sole enabler. An ID will be created through a one-time enrolment that will work by comparing a user’s photo in their biometric passport to a selfie video taken on the app. The phone and the passport will communicate through their embedded chips.
The government said the ID system will not be used to keep tabs on people and that collected facial recognition data will be deleted once the enrolment process is over. The idea is for Alicem to give people secure access to a myriad of services, from their taxes and banks, to social security and utility bills. None of the data will not be integrated into identity databases. The idea has nevertheless raised alarm. “Rushing into facial recognition at this point is a major risk” because of uncertainties on its final use, said Didier Baichere, a governing-party lawmaker who sits on the Parliament’s “future technologies” commission and is the author of a July report on the subject. Allowing mass-usage before putting in place proper checks and balances is “ludicrous,” he said.
