No face recognition at the Olimpico stadium in Rome for Euro 2020 matches, authorities claim
No facial recognition algorithms will be deployed at the Olimpico stadium in Rome when it reopens to some 17,000 supporters to host Euro 2020's opening match on 11 June, a spokesperson for 'Sport e Salute', a subsidiary of the Italian Ministry of Economy and the owner of the facility, told AlgorithmWatch in a phone conversation.
This directly contradicts media reports that claimed that "an algorithm born to study face recognition, Skeleton," would be adopted, allowing "to check for social distancing" both inside the stadium and at its gates, and send an alert whenever supporters violate the 1.5 meters safety distance required by the World Health Organisation. "There will be no face recognition, and no biometric data treatment", the spokesperson said. "We were wrong when we spoke about face recognition."
Use of the Skeleton algorithm has also been rejected after initial consideration, the spokesperson added. No additional information about the algorithm was provided to AlgorithmWatch, including concerning its developer and why it has been discarded.
Sport e Salute CEO, Vito Cozzoli, also claimed that a "control room equipped with sophisticated software and AI" would be managing the data influx from the 110 surveillance cameras deployed in the stadium. The ambition is to use the system to turn the Olimpico stadium into a safe and "technologically smart" facility, Cozzoli argued.
Asked about what kind of artificial intelligence solution was more precisely adopted, the Sport e Salute spokesperson claimed that the term "AI" was actually "improperly" referred to the 48 cameras equipped with thermal scanning function that will be deployed to check a supporter's temperature both at the gates and inside the stadium.
No full automation would be implied either, the spokesperson said, as all social distancing and temperature alerts must be reviewed by a human.
AlgorithmWatch asked to access documentary evidence of what was claimed in the phone conversation, but none was provided.
Use of live face recognition technology in football stadiums was hypothesised by the previous government (and current sports authorities) in 2020, with the stated aim of fighting racism. Trials involved the controversial and opaque SARI live face recognition system adopted by Italian law enforcement.
The Italian Data Protection Authority however issued an opinion in which it argues against its use, as the system currently lacks a legal basis and even "leads to a form of mass surveillance".