French police will be able to spy on mobile phones suspected of serious crimes

The French police can remotely activate geolocation, microphones and cell phone cameras or other related devices to monitor or listen or record suspects in certain investigations. The National Assembly and the Senate confirmed this Tuesday in the first reading the controversial Article 3 of the bill that allows these activities.

This measure can only be used in case investigations terrorism, organized crime and crimes for which a prison sentence of more than five years is prescribed, and as long as the needs of the class require it. Certain professions will continue to be protected. In addition, for the remote activation of a suspect’s electronic device, the judge must give prior approval, always limited in time.

The French Senate wanted the measure to apply to crimes punishable by more than ten years in prison, but the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, re-set the measure to five, as originally indicated in a government bill. During the parliamentary debate, the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, assured that it was simple technological adaptation. Police investigators are already placing microphones or cameras in suspects’ homes or geolocators in their vehicles. The possibility of remote activation of electronic devices of suspects simpler and more efficient and less dangerous for agents, the minister claims.

The National Regrouping, Marine Le Pen’s party, voted in favor of Article 3, believing it necessary to put the police “on the same technological level” as criminals.

invasion of privacy

In light of this, several NGOs have attacked the regulations violates fundamental rights and freedoms. The association La Quadrature du Net considers it “an attack on privacy and an escalation of security”. “It represents a particularly serious violation of respect for private life that cannot be justified by the protection of public order,” the Paris Bar Association condemned in a statement in May. Representatives of the left also believe that the word oa a dangerous liberticidal measure. “The guarantees that frame this practice are not satisfactory,” said Socialist MP Cécile Untermaier. Antoine Léaument, a parliamentarian from the left-wing France Insoumise party, condemned President Emmanuel Macron’s “totalitarian turn” on Twitter.

Nous ne sommes pas favorable aux caméras piéton.

Mais puisque’il y en a, le dispositif doit ªtre equilibré.

Si nous sommes filmés, nous devons pouvoir avoir accès aux films.

C’est un principe évidente pour un démocrate. pic.twitter.com/aFLwuwHQMW

— Antoine Léaument 🇫🇷 (@ALeaument) July 11, 2023

“He wants to spy on everyone. Cameras, microphones, geolocation. He wants to use our phones to spy on us. This time we are already here: welcome to 1984,” he said, referring to the famous dystopian novel by the British writer George Orwell, which describes a society under the control of Big Brother and in which mass surveillance and political repression are practiced. .