French officials get sweeping new powers to spy on internet users
Legislation quietly passes to allow cyber-eavesdropping by a wide range of government entities, without the need for any prior authorisation
French intelligence and government officials are to get powers to spy on internet users in real time and without authorisation.
The legislation, which was passed on Wednesday almost unnoticed, will enable a wide range of public officials including regular and paramilitary police, intelligence and anti-terrorist agencies as well as several government ministries to monitor computer, tablet and smartphone use directly.
The spying clause, part of a military programming law, comes just weeks after France, which considers individual privacy a pillar of human rights, expressed outrage at revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been intercepting phone calls in France. The president, Francois Hollande, expressed his "extreme reprobation".
Article 13 of the law will allow not just the security forces but intelligence services from the defence, interior, economy and budget ministries to see "electronic and digital communications" to discover who is connected to whom, what they are communicating and where they are.
Despite concerns over the infringement of personal liberties, and the possibility of abuse of the blanket justification for snooping for the "prevention of crime", the military programming law cleared its final hurdle on Wednesday after the Senate, the upper house of parliament, approved it by 164 votes to 146. The bill was earlier approved in the lower house by a similar majority.
No clear picture of how surveillance … was being conducted
An amendment rejecting article 13, tabled by senators from the Ecology party, was thrown out.