The French National Assembly recently passed a bill that effectively give its police the power to monitor or surveil suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone, and GPS systems on their smart devices. Basically, it means that the French will no longer have to depend on the traditional methods of installing bugs and cameras in a suspect’s home or preferred location, if they wanted to keep tabs on them.
As you can imagine, the passing of this bill has raised red flags among civil liberties groups within France, chief among them being the digital rights group, La Qadrature du Net. It actually expressed concern that, with the passing of this bill, its country’s police may abuse their power and target individuals that may not pose as grave a threat as those the legislation passed was intended for.
The French National Assembly have tried to settle the nerves of the concerned, assuring the French public that there are safeguards in place for the bill to be enacted. Firstly, any of use of the new surveillance powers must be approved by a judge. Second, the bill is prohibited from being used on journalists, lawyers, and other “sensitive professions”. Third, the act can be used in serious cases, and only for a maximum period of six months. Further, if geolocation were to be used in the surveillance, it would have to be related to crimes that are punishable by at least five years in prison.
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