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| Cyber |
| Police will be allowed to spy on suspects by remotely activating their phones' camera, microphone and GPS under new French laws dubbed a 'snoopers' charter' |
| 2023-07-06 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only 'dozens of cases a year'. Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years' jail. Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organised crime. The provisions 'raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,' digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May statement. It cited the 'right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence' and 'the right to come and go freely', calling the proposal part of a 'slide into heavy-handed security'. During debate on Wednesday, MPs in President Emmanuel Macron's camp inserted an amendment limiting the use of remote spying to 'when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime' and 'for a strictly proportional duration'. Any use of the provision must be approved by a judge, while the total duration of the surveillance cannot exceed six months. And sensitive professions including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and MPs would not be legitimate targets. 'We're far away from the totalitarianism of ''1984'',' George Orwell's novel about a society under total surveillance, Dupond-Moretti said. 'People's lives will be saved' by the law, he added. The contested measure, part of an article containing several other provisions, was voted through by National Assembly members as a wider justice overhaul bill making its way through parliament. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 Electric tape fixes the camera spying but don’t know how to block the sound… |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2023-07-06 21:24 |
| #2 They're pretending that they don't already do this, so that they can use the stuff they gather in open court. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-07-06 16:02 |
| #1 An ITSEC group, back in 2005 was demo'ing this ability here in the USA. Given some lamely secured configure smart phones, just having the IMEI code opens the door to a lot easy hacks. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2023-07-06 12:53 |