UDINE. The Municipality has announced the purchase of 67 new video surveillance cameras compatible with the software that allows facial recognition. But at the moment the use of this technology is not allowed. In fact, the Privacy Guarantor has already blocked a similar project in Como.
The debate on the balance between security needs and the protection of privacy and individual freedoms is open. It is being discussed in Parliament – where Udine has also been discussed – and urgent interpellations have been presented to the Council of Ministers and to the Minister of the Interior. «Considering the orientation of the Guarantor and the regulatory framework – declared the municipal councilor for safety Alessandro Ciani – the program for facial recognition has not been purchased. However, I believe this is the future of prevention. On the other hand, I wonder what a person who behaves well should fear, considering also that only the police and judicial authorities could have access to the videos ».
The challenge, in short, is that of balancing the needs of security and those of protecting the privacy and freedoms of each of us. And the debate is open.
FACIAL RECOGNITION
Facial recognition is an artificial intelligence technique that uses biometric data (face shape, eye color, distance between pupils, mouth and nose size) to verify a person’s identity from one or more images that they portray it.
Basically, these cameras use software that is able to draw a mathematical model from the image of a face in real time which will then be applied to other images in the archive – for the procedure to work, therefore, there must be reference databases – to find a match. It is also possible to carry out searches, for example, of a person considered dangerous: in this case the program will be able to identify the possible presence of the suspect by analyzing the videos that shoot a crowd. And this also in real time.
VIDEO SURVEILLANCE IN THE CITY
The video surveillance system managed by the local police currently monitors 73 critical points and 9 points outside the schools, in addition there are 5 control points in the access avenues (viale Tricesimo, Palmanova, Venice and via Cividale as well as piazzale Cella) with 13 cameras equipped with a license plate reading system capable of verifying insurance coverage and renewal of the revision. With the new installations, which according to the indications of the administration should be carried out by the end of the year, the electronic eyes will go from the current 95 to 160.
THE MUNICIPAL PROJECT
Installing the 67 new high-definition cameras will cost 673 thousand euros. They will be able to “automatically generate alarms and notify in real time of the possible presence of reported individuals.” If placed at an adequate height, they will be able to identify people “with partial facial occlusions, glasses, scarves, hats, changes in expression, shadows, high contrast, or extreme or poor lighting conditions.”
WHAT THE GUARANTOR OF PRIVACY SAYS
During a seminar organized last summer by the Privacy Italia association, Agostino Ghiglia, a member of the college of the Privacy Guarantor, explained that facial recognition can be a “tool for investigation or persecution”, “a tool to find something or to look for something that is not there ».
And therefore the Guarantor’s effort is to reconcile the interests at stake: on the one hand a very strong interest due to security as a form of freedom and, on the other, there is the confidentiality of our private life which is another form of freedom.
According to Ghiglia, “the Municipality can use cameras with the local police to raise fines or prevent access to certain areas. And the investigative judge can order that the cameras be used for different purposes. But certainly not everyone can use the cameras to do anything, because it would be mass surveillance ».
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