After months of struggle, the La Quadrature du Net association succeeded
in obtaining the source code of the algorithm used by the CNAF tocontrol beneficiaries. It reveals that, as we might have suspected, themost precarious are targeted. At the National Family Allowance Fund(CNAF), where the search for declaration errors and fraud has becomeindustrialized in recent years, a tool has been erected as a totem: Datamining. The prioritization of files to be checked today relies almostexclusively on a "risk score" calculated for each beneficiary accordingto a battery of personal criteria. This algorithm uses personalcharacteristics of beneficiaries, some of them discriminatory, in orderto assign them a risk of fraud...At CAF, data mining has been tested since 2004, in the local banks ofDijon and Bordeaux. Its use was generalized in 2010 throughout theterritory, in a political context marked by the hunt for social fraud bya certain Nicolas Sarkozy who had set up, once elected, a nationaldelegation to fight against fraud.! For the CNAF, it was a question ofdetermining the profiles of beneficiaries most likely to have committedirregularities in their declarations. To do this, the CNAF launched agigantic life-size test: it sent its 700 controllers to the homes of7,000 randomly selected beneficiaries to check their situation indetail. Then statisticians became interested in the commoncharacteristics of cases leading to claims for sums paid wrongly (thefamous "overpayments"). They looked for correlations with the numerousdata they have on the faulty beneficiaries! Based on these findings, theorganization chose around forty criteria to which it assigned riskcoefficients. This system allows it to automatically assign eachbeneficiary a score ranging from 0 to 1, by drawing on their personaldata. The higher this score, the higher the chances of undergoing a homeinspection. This targeting method detecting more irregularities thanrandom checks quickly established itself: in a few years, data miningbecame the primary trigger for home checks (around 70% in 2021).The risk score is mainly calculated based on criteria relating to thecomposition of the household, its resources or the professionalsituation of its members. Additionally, a handful of these criteria candrastically vary the risk score. The controls therefore target typicalprofiles, based on criteria that the declarants do not understand,rather than suspicious behavior or inconsistent situations, as the CNAFclaims.Even more troubling, the algorithm uses elements linked to the familysituation of recipients, the age of household members, economicvulnerability or disability. Among the criteria that increase the riskscore, we find for example: having a spouse over 60 years old; having achild over 12 years old in the household; being recently divorced,widowed or separated; having income below a certain threshold (942 eurosfor a single person); the fact of being a beneficiary of the disabledadult allowance (AAH)... The use of these characteristics is inprinciple prohibited by French and European legislation as beingdiscriminatory. The CNAF rejects the accusation of discrimination,ensuring that it only operates on statistical grounds.She also maintains a double discourse on the purpose of her algorithm.Officially, data mining only searches for declarative errors and notintentional fraud, whether these errors are in favor or againstbeneficiaries. But in the end the CNAF claimed, for example, 985 millioneuros in overpayments from beneficiaries in 2022 compared to only 378million in rights not wrongly paid.La Quadrature du Net denounces, for its part, other organizations suchas Pôle emploi, Urssaf, old age insurance, agricultural social mutualsor, to a lesser extent, health insurance, which are developing the sametype algorithms "which meet the same objectives and which will generallytarget the same audiences".Sources: The quadrature of the net, the world, mediapartIn France, we do not know how many identity checks are carried out bythe police each year, nor what they are used for. And given the lowdegree of supervision exercised over these controls, we also do not knowwhether they are carried out properly.The rights defender, Claire Hédon, contacted the Court of Auditors,which investigated and made its report public on December 6. After aseries of interviews and trips, coupled with the analysis of officialdata, the Court of Auditors can only provide approximate answers tosimple questions.Despite the "central place" of identity checks in the daily work of thepolice and gendarmerie, the Court of Auditors notes that "the securityforces have not given themselves the means to exhaustively list thechecks carried out nor to understand the reasons and analyze theresults. This situation is all the more surprising given that thepractice of identity checks has been the subject of a long-standingdebate in public opinion."No statistical tool allows us to know how many identity checks arecarried out each year in France. From "partial and unreliable sources"which require caution, the Court of Auditors arrives at a numericalestimate of this practice "which is both massive and poorly measured":47 million checks in 2021, "i.e. on average 9 checks per patrol and per day."The national gendarmerie checked around 20 million people, including8.3 million during road checks. The national police carried out around27 million identity checks in the same year, including 6.6 million roadchecks.» The report calls on the Ministry of the Interior to set up "anexhaustive census" which appears "indispensable" to measure and analyzethe phenomenon.In the field, agents benefit from a large margin of maneuver in thedecision to carry out an identity check as well as in its conduct. Theyare also the only ones to decide whether the situation requires carryingout a security pat-down on the person being checked or consulting thenational police and gendarmerie files (such as the Wanted Persons File)to see if their name appears there.The Court of Auditors notes that these acts complementary to control,which are not obligatory, are in the process of being "generalized".Even diverted from their purpose. "Security searches are sometimescarried out to look for offenses", such as the possession of drugs, theCourt even notes. According to the Internal Security Code, pat-downs areexclusively intended to check whether the person is carrying a dangerousobject, for them or for others (such as a knife).Roadside checks, for their part, are characterized by "the totallatitude enjoyed by police officers and gendarmes in the choice ofdrivers to be checked, independently of any behavioral criteria".As for facial checks, the Court of Auditors is as timid as the Councilof State. Indeed, in France ethnic statistics are prohibited!Sources: Médiapart.fr From November 14 to 17, the MILIPOL exhibition was held near Paris (seeCA 335 under this section),An Amnesty International team walked through the lounge and identified"illegal law enforcement weapons as well as equipment consideredprohibited by the UN rapporteur on torture."Among these barbaric tools, "direct contact electric batons, electricpulse gloves, ammunition containing several kinetic projectiles,multi-barrel launchers..."So many innovations aimed at state violence which are exposed "byAmerican, Chinese, Czech, French, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, South Koreancompanies".In principle, since 2006, the European Union has banned the export ofcertain repressive equipment "under the EU anti-torture regulation". In2019, these Regulations were strengthened, prohibiting "the promotionand exhibition of this material at trade shows", such as MILIPOL. Theserules are absolutely not enforced. Moreover, the very notion of"torture" is vague.When the French police shoot rubber bullets in the faces of humanbeings, it is torture. When the gendarmerie sends thousands of explosivegrenades at environmentalists, causing mutilations and comas, that isalso torture. Likewise when officers discharge electrical impulsesseveral times into the body of an arrested person."Unlike conventional weapons, there are no legally binding global rulesgoverning the production and trade of law enforcement equipment," saysAmnesty. Let us remember here that Tasers or LBDs used in France are lethal.Source: amnesty.frIn a decision of November 16, the Council censored the remote activationof mobile phones for the capture of sounds and images because it waslikely to cause a particularly serious attack on the right to respectfor private life.On the other hand, the Constitutional Council judges that "the remoteactivation of electronic devices for geolocation purposes does notdisregard the right to respect for private life".Furthermore, the Constitutional Council partially censors and limitsinterpretation reservations to the provisions concerning the use ofvideoconferencing in the context of various judicial procedures.Source: lemonde.frThis emblematic Parisian store, owned by LVMH, reopened in June 2021after 16 years of closure due to enormous work. This change wasinaugurated by Bernard Arnault alongside a certain Macron. As soon as itreopened, the makeup sellers reported harmful management, one of themalso filed a complaint against the Samaritaine for "complicity in moralharassment at work". Black logistics agents also had to endure openlyracist remarks from a manager, still in place at the end of 2023.There are mainly cameras at the Samaritaine as the store and thebasement are gridded. More than a thousand cameras are distributedthroughout the store, all declared according to management.At the end of August 2023, 3 employees discovered cameras hidden insmoke detectors on the floor (-2) intended to monitor employees andcertainly film access to the union premises occupied by the CGT.Scandal! The cameras didn't stay in place for long. The day after theirdiscovery, the employees of the second basement were summoned to thefourth floor, in the management offices. "They don't really understandwhat they're doing there. It lasts half an hour, we talk to them aboutbonuses, relates the CGT union representative of La Samaritaine. Whenthey come back down, all the fake detectors are gone. They call me andsay: "That's it, they cleaned up." On the walls, only the bases and thetapes remain. A few days later, some of the store's managers went downto "–2". The director, accompanied by the security manager, tries toreassure the teams. "They assured us that what was being said in thecorridors was fabrications. They promised that they had not filmed usand claimed that they were simply carrying out tests," recalls an employee.Two memory cards taken from spy cameras are now in the hands of the CGTtrade federationSource: Médiapart.frAt the end of November and beginning of December, a series ofconferences, workshops and concerts were held as part of an anti-fascistweek in Lyon. On December 2 and 3, interventions by activists andauthors around state violence and police repression were to take placein Villeurbanne. The Rhône prefecture has issued an order to prohibitweekend meetings and discussions on the grounds of alleged disturbancesof public order. The prefectural decree targeted in particular the"Abolir the Police" workshop of the Matsuda collective, which providesremarkable work on police abolitionism.Meanwhile in Brittany, near Saint-Malo, around thirty plates from thecomic strip "Koko doesn't like capitalism" were exhibited during theQuai des Bulles festival. "A spotlight" for the illustrations of theartist Tienstiens in various public places in the city. The comic hassold more than 20,000 copies. While the exhibition was to end on SundayNovember 26, an article from France 3 specified that the boards had beentaken down on November 17 because municipal police officers consideredtwo panels by the designer particularly shocking. In the line of sight,a sketch representing choristers singing the anthem of radicalactivists: "Everyone / Hates the police" and entitled "ACAB BCBG", for"All Cops Are Bastards" (all cops are bastards) and "preppy". Anunbearable drawing for the municipal police officers who, after a simplebit of pressure at the town hall, managed to have the Tienstiens postersremoved immediately...Source: contre-attack.nethttp://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4060_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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