France is to significantly expand its powers of digital surveillance just weeks after protesting against allegations of extensive US spying on its citizens.
Internet business groups, the employers’ federation and the country’s own data protection watchdog have strongly objected to a new law that extends the scope of telecoms and internet surveillance by the state well beyond existing provision for antiterrorism probes.
The measures, given final parliamentary approval by the senate on Tuesday night, extend authority to gather digital information previously limited to the intelligence agencies to the defence, interior, finance and budget ministries.
Apart from terrorism, information can be sought on the grounds of national security, organised crime and the protection of national economic and scientific interests.
The bill, included in a law setting military spending for the next five years, allows access not only to data about telephone and internet traffic from internet providers but also to content, including that held by host websites. It also provides for access in real time to the location of mobile devices.
The information can be demanded without prior approval of a judge, as previously required. But there will be post-facto monitoring by national oversight bodies.
Asic, an association of internet businesses including Google, Facebook and Yahoo as well as French rivals, said on Wednesday the law “raises numerous questions in terms of the protection of liberty” and “weakened the French position in the European and international debate over the protection of personal data”.
François Hollande led protests by his socialist government in recent months over revelations stemming from leaks by Edward Snowden, a former agent of the US National Security Agency, that the NSA had conducted mass surveillance of European citizens, including in France.
He complained to President Barack Obama and backed moves to establish a code of conduct between allies on digital and other intelligence gathering.
Medef, the employers’ federation, said the new law was a threat to growth in internet businesses in France. “(It) embeds a mechanism for permanent real-time surveillance in an extremely broad framework without the necessary procedural guarantees. It amounts to a serious blow to the confidence that all actors must have in the internet,” it said in a statement. Cnil, the national data protection body, complained that it had not been consulted about the law, which consolidates and makes permanent previously temporary antiterrorist provisions.
But the government defended the measures, saying oversight would be provided both by the National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions, which ensures the legality of communications surveillance, and the French National Commission on Computing and Freedom.
Fleur Pellerin, minister for digital affairs, said on Twitter that the law “reinforces democratic control on intelligence” and would be complemented by a “big digital law” next year that would include assurances on liberties. Jean-Yves Le Drian, defence minister, told parliament: “It seems to me that we’re now moving toward a balance between operational efficiency and the respect of freedoms.”
(Published by Financial Times – December 11, 2013)