France’s highest-court has put an end to Paris’s high-tech plan to sniff out social-distancing violations by using a camera drone to spot overcrowded locations.
The State Council, in a case brought by human rights and digital-privacy groups, banned the drones because their cameras were good enough to identify individuals on the ground and “there are risks they could be used contrary to personal data protection rules.” The city had claimed that it wasn’t interested in individuals, but only in spotting crowds so it could send patrols to break them up.
Because the ruling came from the State Council, it will also apply to other cities using the technology. They now have the option to apply to the national government and official privacy watchdogs for an exception, or to re-equip the drones with cameras that can’t identify individuals.
