A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #338 - Prison Hell in France, French weapons in Senegal and other chronicles of control and repression - Big brother 338 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

At the forefront since 2001 on the theme of urban cameras, ranking on 
the podium of the most video-monitored cities in the country, Nîmes 
inaugurated, on November 13, 2023, its "hypervisor". ---- With this 
state-of-the-art tool, on which around fifty people work night and day, 
the city is taking a big step further towards the "connected city", a 
rapidly developing trend for community management. ---- At any time, the 
agents stationed in this hypervisor can easily spot, based on very high 
quality images, inconvenient parking, a vehicle driving too fast, a wild 
dump, strange behavior... This place concentrates all the information 
related to the management of public space (security, traffic, parking, 
environment, etc.), allows you to manage public lighting in a 
neighborhood with a simple click, to issue a fine remotely (their number 
increased by 23% in one year with video reporting) or to spot an 
intrusion in one of the 375 connected municipal buildings.
The collection and circulation of data in real time are at the heart of 
the program. The system is based on cameras equipped, and this is the 
new thing, with artificial intelligence software whose algorithms 
provide new information. Because it is no longer just a matter of 
filming and monitoring, but of managing the city in real time.
When it comes to software, the City of Nîmes, as well as other cities, 
work with Inéo, a French company specializing in the field of smart 
cities. As for the municipal police center, it is equipped with Syndex 
automated surveillance software, and high-performance video surveillance 
image analysis software, Briefcam. This latest software, increasingly 
widespread in French communities, was developed by an Israeli company 
bought by the Japanese Canon, in 2018. It is above all at the heart of 
legal actions brought by unions, associations and groups who criticize 
it, in particular, for allowing facial recognition of any individual by 
activating a specific functionality.
Nice, Angers, Lyon, Deauville, Orléans... Video-managed cities of all 
sizes are multiplying, and with them the ethical questions concerning 
the use, for the moment quite vague, of personal data and individual 
surveillance, even if few citizens seem to take hold of it.
These digital cameras are capable of 360 degrees, filming and zooming 
(some are called "augmented" in the sense that they do not just film but 
analyze, that is to say, make people talk images).
Currently, legally, these augmented cameras can only analyze objects 
(trucks, cars, bicycles) for statistical purposes. "Those capable of 
analyzing individual behavior cannot be deployed," assures the director 
of the CNIL. But it's a question of time...
In Nîmes, the development of this "mass surveillance" worries the Human 
Rights League (LDH), the only local association to have raised the 
question of the use of personal data during the municipal campaign, and 
which , still today, questions himself.
Source: lemonde.fr

For having monitored its employees too closely, Amazon France Logistique 
(AFL) was sentenced by the National Commission for Information 
Technology and Liberties (Cnil) to a fine of more than 32 million euros, 
or 3% of the company turnover which amounted to more than 1.135 billion 
euros in 2021.
The decision taken on December 27 was made public on January 23, after 
more than four years of investigation and legal analysis. The control 
missions were carried out at the end of 2019. AFL then had 6,200 
employees on permanent contracts and employed 21,582 temporary workers 
over the year. It was following several complaints from employees and 
press articles that the commission decided to take up the subject.
The CNIL indicates that although there have been precedents, this fine 
is unprecedented in its scale and is justified, among other things, by 
"the permanent computer surveillance induced by the processing in 
question and the pressure that results from it for employees and 
temporary workers" as well as "the large number of people concerned". 
For comparison, Ikea France was only fined one million euros in 2021 by 
the Versailles court for having put in place an increased surveillance 
system for its employees, and in particular union members. es, between 
2009 and 2012. The prosecution had nevertheless requested a sentence 
twice as heavy.

Every day, in all the large warehouses of the Amazon group in France, 
the choreography is the same: each employee, equipped with a scanner, 
provides information in real time on each of the tasks entrusted to 
them, from picking items from the shelves to packaging. These scanners 
record the rate at which packages are processed, measure the speed at 
which items are put away and time each interruption of activity, among 
other things... All this in an incessant ballet of digital signals, 
sounds and lights that indicate to employees: es every move to make.
For David Gaborieau, sociologist of work and researcher at the Center 
for the Study of Employment and Work, the surveillance of employees is 
only the logical continuation of the organization of work as it is 
thought of in the field of logistics: "In daily work in warehouses, what 
is most disturbing for an employee is that all their actions are 
completely supervised. The way we work is entirely dictated by machines, 
software packages, and we have very little room for maneuver. The 
arduousness of work without autonomy is very significant and the stress 
of supervision only adds to this arduousness.»
For the CNIL, recording data not only makes it possible to better 
organize warehouse activity, but also to monitor each employee 
individually. Furthermore, the commission considers it "excessive" to 
keep this data for more than 31 days.
These scanners make it possible to collect a large number of indicators, 
three of which have been deemed illegal:

The "Stow Machine Gun" indicator signals when an employee has scanned an 
item too quickly, i.e. less than 1.25 seconds after scanning the 
previous one.
The "Idle Time" indicator indicates when an employee has not scanned 
anything for ten minutes or more.
The "Latency time less than ten minutes" indicator indicates when an 
employee has not scanned anything for one to ten minutes. To be 
continued because Amazon should appeal.
Source: Médiapart.fr

On May 17, 2023, the Constitutional Council validated the legislative 
framework allowing the police to use algorithmic video surveillance 
(VSA) in real time, after several months of legislative battle in the 
midst of the retirement movement. Then, as a logical consequence, a call 
for tenders was published in the summer to launch competition between 
the numerous companies which have flourished in recent years in the 
sector. This public contract, accompanied by technical clauses, 
describes the requirements to which companies offering their services 
must comply and, first of all, the famous "suspicious" situations and 
behaviors that the software must identify in order to trigger an alert. 
In fact, the law had been passed blindly without them being defined, 
they were then formalized by a decree of August 28, 2023. This decree 
lists suspicious situations and behaviors: presence of abandoned 
objects; presence or use of weapons; non-compliance by a person or 
vehicle with the common direction of traffic; crossing or presence of a 
person or vehicle in a prohibited or sensitive area; presence of a 
person on the ground following a fall; crowd movement; too high a 
density of people; fires starting. Nothing extraordinary, just banal. 
The State is careful not to identify people via the color of their 
clothing or facial recognition. We are not there yet... After several 
months of tests and simulations, this contract was awarded at the 
beginning of January. It was naturally awarded to companies that have 
been well established for several years in this type of market and 
maintaining good relations with the State. These companies will thus be 
able to make their algorithms available, well beyond just the Olympic 
Games since this experiment concerns any "recreational, sporting and 
cultural event", until March 31, 2025, well after the end of the Olympic 
Games. It will subsequently be subject to an "evaluation". But we must 
not be fooled, this "experiment" during the Olympic Games must be seen 
as a simple step towards the legitimization and perpetuation of these 
technologies. Past examples show us that security projects supposed to 
be temporary are systematically extended, such as the black boxes of the 
Intelligence law or the exceptional provisions of the state of emergency.
Source: la quadrature.net

In Senegal, an uprising is underway against authoritarian President 
Macky Sall who has decided to "postpone" the elections scheduled for 
February 25 (see CA 336). To date, hundreds of people have been 
arrested, several injured by bullets and at least three protesters 
killed. Most of the ammunition used is made in France. In the images 
circulating in recent days, we can clearly see the use of "Cougar" 
launchers used to throw grenades at demonstrators. We also see hand 
grenades thrown by the police. These munitions and launchers are 
manufactured by the company Alsetex, whose factory is based in Sarthe. 
Explosive grenades were also used, the same models as those which 
mutilated Sainte-Soline and elsewhere.
France is one of the world's leading arms exporters. Not only military 
weapons, but also law enforcement weapons. 1 year ago, in February 2023, 
the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced the sale of 
military equipment to Senegal during a visit to Dakar, as part of an 
African tour...
Source: Contre-attack.net

As of January 1, 2024, 75,897 people were surviving in prison, an 
increase of 3,724 prisoners in 2023.
The International Prison Observatory (OIP) has published an 
investigative report on the disciplinary machine that reigns in prisons. 
This investigative work was carried out between October 2022 and 
December 2023.
"In prison, the list of offenses punishable by disciplinary sanctions is 
potentially infinite" underlines the OIP. A detainee may be punished for 
"dress deemed inappropriate, a blocked eyepiece, a radio that refuses to 
turn down the volume". It is the regime of arbitrariness which is 
established there. If the prisoners cannot know precisely the offenses 
that they can be accused of, anything becomes permissible for the 
guards, who can assert their authority outside of all legality, for 
reasons of personal revenge in particular.
The few legislative advances in terms of monitoring prison decisions are 
far from enough. The written reports required on the facts giving rise 
to a sanction in no way guarantee fair treatment of the disciplinary 
procedure, since they remain cloistered behind prison walls. The right 
to the assistance of a lawyer established since 2000 is rarely used and, 
despite the obligation to provide the file at least 24 hours before the 
disciplinary committee, it is extremely common for lawyers to only be 
able to consult it. 'One hour before. Regardless of the laws that govern 
this procedure, the fact remains that the prison administration finds 
itself both judge and party where the head of the establishment has a 
predominant place in the disciplinary committee. Even if it is not a 
criminal trial, the disciplinary committee implements sanctions, which 
in the majority of cases lead to the disciplinary unit, notes the OIP 
investigation.
Placement in a disciplinary unit can last up to 30 days. These are cells 
similar to those in police custody, therefore placing the prisoners in 
conditions of incredible violence: there is total isolation, but also 
very often the absence of hygiene, "windows revealing barely passing the 
light", a daily one-hour outing in a "walking yard" which is nothing 
other than another closed room, "not to mention the numerous cases of 
violence and bullying by supervisors -es penitentiaries"... The prisoner 
violates human dignity, it is a question of degrading and violent 
treatment. It is a place where the violence of guards is carried out 
with complete impunity, far from view.
"A fault can lead, in addition to the sanction decided by the 
disciplinary committee, to cascading consequences on daily prison life - 
for example in terms of work activity or detention regime - but also on 
the course of execution of the sentence - in particular through the 
decisions of the sentencing courts to grant or not furloughs, sentence 
adjustments or sentence reductions" explains the OIP.
It is absolutely urgent to lift the silence on the unworthy conditions 
in which prisoners survive and it is time to put an end to these places 
of confinement and torture.
Sources: oip.org and Contre-attack.net

More than 13 years after the events, France was condemned by the 
European Court of Human Rights for a police trap where for several hours 
the cops surrounded hundreds of people, including minors, on Place 
Bellecour in Lyon who demonstrated against the pension reform of that 
time. In 2010, this police practice of encirclement was illegal, hence 
the conviction. But in December 2021, a new national law enforcement 
plan (SNMO) was voted on. It now legalizes this justified technique in 
order to "avoid the use of law enforcement techniques that could present 
greater risks of harm to people"! This technique "must, as soon as 
circumstances permit, systematically provide a controlled exit point" 
and must only be implemented "for a strictly necessary and proportionate 
period", stipulates the document. The possibility offered to 
demonstrators to leave the encirclement zone "must constantly be 
reassessed with discernment.» Usual blah blah!
Sources: le monde.fr and SNMO

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4116
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en