Facial Recognition Through the Lens of National Legislations - France

ABSTRACT Although facial recognition technologies are extensively relied upon in judicial proceedings, their preventive deployment, particularly for crowd surveillance and management, remains highly exceptional in France. A limited number of pilot projects have been carried out, but these remain peripheral. In the absence of a dedicated legislative framework, the current legal regime is largely shaped by the safeguards articulated by the Conseil constitutionnel in its jurisprudence on surveillance technologies, alongside the applicable data protection rules. The adoption of the EU AI Act responds to long-standing legislative ambitions in France; however, efforts to establish a permanent national framework have stalled, primarily due to an unfavourable political climate.

KEYWORDS Facial recognition technology (FRT) - Surveillance - Preventive policing - Data protection law - Conseil constitutionnel - Public space regulation - AI Act (EU) - Fundamental rights - National security

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. – 2. Deployment of Facial Recognition Technologies in France. – 2.1. Real-Time Experiments. – 2.2. Retrospective Recognition: The Criminal Records Database (TAJ). – 2.3. Deployment Below the Radar: The Briefcam Case. – 3. The French Legal Framework for Facial Recognition in Public Spaces. – 3.1. Constitutional Safeguards. – 3.2. Data Protection Laws & biometric data. – 4. French perspectives for the Implementation of the AI Act. – 4.1. From the Olympic Experimentation Law to the Special Bill. – 4.2. The CNIL as the Competent Authority for Future Deployments.