Police are allowed to spy on suspects by remotely activating their phone’s camera, microphone and GPS under new French laws dubbed a ‘snoopers’ charter
- The espionage facility has been widely attacked by left and right defenders
- But France’s justice minister has insisted it would only be “dozens of cases a year.”
French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS on their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late on Wednesday.
As part of a wider justice reform bill, the espionage provision has come under attack from the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian charter of snoopers, though Attorney General Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only “dozens of cases a year.”
With regard to laptops, cars and other connected objects, as well as telephones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects of crimes punishable by at least five years in prison.
Devices can also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terrorism, delinquency and organized crime.
The provisions “raise serious concerns about violations of fundamental freedoms,” digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a statement in May.
It called it “right to security, right to private life and private correspondence” and “right to come and go,” calling the proposal part of a “slide into heavy-handed security.”
French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday (French surveillance and intervention police are pictured)
French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti attends the questions during the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, July 4, 2023
During Wednesday’s debate, MPs in President Emmanuel Macron’s camp inserted an amendment limiting the use of remote espionage to “when warranted by the nature and gravity of the crime” and “for a strictly proportionate duration.”
Any use of the facility must be approved by a judge and the total duration of supervision must not exceed six months.
And sensitive professions, including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and members of parliament, would not be a legitimate target.
“We are a long way from the totalitarianism of ‘1984,’” George Orwell’s novel about a society under total surveillance, Dupond-Moretti said.
“People’s lives will be saved” by the law, he added.
The contested measure, part of an article containing several other provisions, was approved by members of the National Assembly as a broader justice reform bill making its way through parliament.