French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens

Cops in France have been granted the authority to remotely activate a suspect's cellphone camera, microphone and GPS, after the passage of a provision in a wider "justice reform bill" on Wednesday night.

The bill allows the geolocation of crime suspects, covering other devices like laptops, cars and connected devices, just as it could be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offences, as well as delinquency and organised crime. -People's Gazette

According to French digital rights advocacy group, La Quadrature du Net, the provisions "raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties," and violate the "right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence" and "the right to come and go freely."

The group called it part of a "slide into heavy-handed security."

Lawmakers defended the move - with Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insisting that the bill would only apply to "dozens of cases a year," while members of parliament inserted an amendment inserted an amendment which only allows the remote spying "when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime" and "for a strictly proportional duration" after a judge has approved the surveillance.