diff --git a/src/nonFree/sift/CMakeLists.txt b/src/nonFree/sift/CMakeLists.txt
index 2f6f79780f..30d83bdc18 100644
--- a/src/nonFree/sift/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/nonFree/sift/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -44,11 +44,16 @@ set(FEATS_H
 set_source_files_properties(${FEATS} ${FEATS_H} PROPERTIES LANGUAGE C)
 set_source_files_properties(${FEATS_H} PROPERTIES HEADER_FILE_ONLY TRUE)
 
+set(SIMD_DEFINITIONS "-DVL_DISABLE_AVX")
+if(NOT ALICEVISION_HAVE_SSE)
+    set(SIMD_DEFINITIONS "${SIMD_DEFINITIONS} -DVL_DISABLE_SSE2")
+endif()
+
 alicevision_add_library(vlsift
   SOURCES
     ${FEATS} ${FEATS_H}
   PUBLIC_DEFINITIONS
-    -DVL_DISABLE_AVX
+    ${SIMD_DEFINITIONS}
   PRIVATE_DEFINITIONS
     -DVL_BUILD_DLL
   )