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Case Studies

Prefecture de Police

The Paris Police Department adopted Identity Cloak to comply with France’s new SREN Law and stricter GDPR enforcement around video data privacy. By automating the redaction of faces and personal identifiers in CCTV footage, the Prefecture reduced manual workload while ensuring lawful, secure responses to data access requests.
Posted in: Local government

Introduction

Growing pressure Under New Data Privacy Rules

In 2024, France introduced sweeping updates to its national data protection framework through the Law to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space (SREN Law). The legislation strengthened the existing French Data Protection Act (FDPA) and expanded the authority of the CNIL, France’s national data protection regulator.

For law enforcement agencies like the Prefecture de Police de Paris, these changes created new operational challenges. The Prefecture, which is responsible for policing and emergency services across Paris and its surrounding departments, suddenly faces stricter requirements for how personal data, including video footage captured in public spaces, must be managed, protected and disclosed.

That’s where Facit Identity Cloak came in.

The Challenge

Responding to Data Access Requests

Under the SREN Law and the GDPR, individuals have the right to access any personal data collected about them, which increasingly included CCTV footage. In Paris alone, it estimated that there are more than 50,000 cameras monitoring streets, stations and public spaces across the metropolitan area, serving a population of more than 10 million residents.

Each year, the Prefecture receives around 300 requests from individuals seeking access to footage in which they appear. Only legitimate, legally validated requests are processed, but fulfilling these requests has grown more complex.

Previously, the Prefecture’s in-house teams had to manually review and obscure faces or identifying details in video files, which was a time-consuming and resource-heavy task. An earlier attempt to build an internal redaction tool was discontinued owning to lack of resources.

Legal Drivers

What changed in 2024-2025

Several provisions of the SREN Law directly impacted how the Paris police handle video data:

  • Enhanced CNIL Enforcement: The CNIL now has expanded oversight over law enforcement data practices, and issues more sanctions and compliance orders for breaches of data protection principles.

  • Expanded Territorial Scope: Data controllers and processors, including public authorities, must comply even when data involves individuals outside of France or the EU, which increases cross-border obligations.

  • AI and Automated Processing Guidelines: The CNIL’s new focus on AI systems extend to how automated tools - including videos analysis and redaction - must handle personal data transparently and fairly.

  • Duty to Inform and Secure Personal Data: Agencies must now provide individuals with clear information about the use of their image and ensure that shared footage cannot be used to re-identify others.

Together, these updates placed the Prefecture heightened security to ensure that every video disclosure complied precisely with national and European data protection standards.

The Search for a Redaction Solution

Faced with these new compliance pressures, the Prefecture de Police began searching for a robust, efficient and legally compliant video redaction solution.

The goals were clear:

  • Accurately fulfil data access requests in line with the updated law.

  • Reduce manual redaction time while maintaining evidence integrity.

  • Ensure anonymity for all bystanders, minors and unrelated individuals visible in footage.

During a Milestone Experience Day in Paris, representatives from the Prefecture met with Facit, a technology company that specialises in privacy-focused video tools.

The team witnessed Identity Cloak in action; a powerful AI-driven redaction solution designed to automatically detect and blur faces, license plates and other personal identifies in video footage.

Results

Testing and Implementation

Following the demonstration, the Prefecture downloaded a free trial of Identity Cloak and conducted a series of extensive tests using real-world CCTV footage. The tests evaluated the softwares accuracy, processing speed, and compliance with CNIL and FDPA standards.

Compliance and Efficiency

With Identity Cloak, the Prefecture de Police can now respond to subject access requests faster and more securely. Automated redaction ensures:

  • Full compliance with SREN Law and GDPR

  • Protection of third-party privacy, especially that of minors

  • Reduced workload for data protection officers and video analysts

Key Takeaway

This Paris Police Department’s adoption of Identity Cloak demonstrates how technology can help public authorities adapt to the evolving landscape of data protection, transparency and digital rights. Under the new French and European legal framework, automated video redaction is no longer optional; it’s a compliance essential.

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