The Cnil, the guardian of the privacy of the French, has ordered four French municipalities to put an end to automatic ticketing systems by recognizing license plates, she said Tuesday, August 25. The Cnil did not wish to make public the names of the municipalities concerned.
“As part of a campaign of on-the-spot checks, the Cnil observed that a growing number of local authorities wanted to automate the process of reporting offenses that they are authorized to observe on the territory of their municipality (for example, rules relating to the inconvenient parking of vehicles on public roads) ‘, indicates the institution.
But these sanction systems without human intervention, via automatic photo and reading of license plates, are only possible for the violation of paid parking (non-payment or exceeding the authorized time), recalls the Cnil.
Inconvenient parking cannot be dealt with in this way
Criminal offenses such as inconvenient or dangerous parking cannot be dealt with in this way, as municipalities do not have the right to “Collect photographic files” representing license plates to detect and sanction them.
The Cnil in particular monitors these automatic license plate recognition devices, which are potentially very intrusive for privacy.
They “Result in the mandatory identification of all drivers wishing to park on public roads, as well as […] the undifferentiated collection of all the license plates of parked vehicles ”, she underlined in 2018.
They are “ likely to reveal detailed information about the private life of individuals, and call into question the possibility offered to citizens, unless there is specific justification, to circulate in public space anonymously ”, she had indicated.
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