French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones and GPS to Spy On Citizens

July 07, 2023

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.”