France Approves Sweeping Surveillance Legislation
PARIS , July 24 (UPI) — French legislation giving the government sweeping new power for surveillance of citizens was approved by the country’s highest legal authority Friday.
The Constitutional Council, to which the law was referred by President Francois Hollande to ensure it could not be challenged, made only minor adjustments to what some in France call the “Big Brother” bill.
The law allows secret services the right to eavesdrop on the digital and mobile phone communications of anyone linked to a “terrorist” inquiry; install secret cameras and recording devices in private homes without a warrant, and allow “keylogger” devices to be placed on computers that record key strokes. Internet and phone service providers will be obligated to install “black boxes” – complex algorithms – that will alert the authorities to suspicious online behavior, and those companies will be forced to hand over information by government request.
The newly-formed National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques, an advisory body comprised of judges and parliament members, are to be consulted for interpretation of the law. Articles in the bill allowing intelligence services to bypass the advisory group, and allowing anyone outside of France to be placed under surveillance, were struck down as too broad.
Groups including France’s far-left parties, the United Nations’ human rights commission and international privacy advocates condemned the bill. The London-based Privacy International organization likened to legal hacking, calling it “an extremely intrusive form of surveillance.”
“Its use by any state authorities, particularly intelligence agencies, must be highly regulated to protect against abuses of power. Yet the bill makes no provision for judicial authorization or oversight of hacking powers.”
