The use of these surveillance devices to assess the age of customers, as part of the sale of tobacco or alcohol, is deemed excessive by the data protection gendarme.
The CNIL, the data protection gendarme, judged the use of cameras “Increased” in tobacco offices to assess the age of customers “Neither necessary nor proportionate”in an opinion published on Friday. These cameras, equipped with software based on artificial intelligence (AI), are used as part of the sale of products prohibited to minors, such as cigarettes, alcohol or gambling. “Following several requests”the CNIL has evaluated the conformity of these systems to French law and the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and has decided against them.
“The preliminary analysis of the face of people by a camera to estimate their age does not appear necessary”because the verification of identity documents remains the only way to ensure the majority of customers, indicates the authority in its opinion. In parallel, she emphasizes that the “Deployment (” increased “cameras) in living spaces such as tobacco offices contributes to a risk of trivialization and habitation to a form of surveillance reinforced by the multiplication of such tools”.
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Requested, the authority, however, said that“In the absence of a complaint of people concerned, to date, the CNIL wishes to give time to the tobacconists concerned to comply». This equipment has already been deployed locally in several tobacco offices: at the end of 2024, the Paris-Île-de-France federation of tobacconists had, for example, indicated that it had launched an experiment in 14 establishments. Requested, the National Confederation of tobacconists said “Take note” In the opinion of the CNIL and will be expressed on the subject in the coming days.
In a reaction, the alliance against tobacco (ACT) was delighted with this opinion. “The deployment of age verification devices among tobacconists does not in any case constitute a satisfactory response to the non-compliance with the prohibition of sale of tobacco and vaping products to minors”she argued.