Despite strong opposition from the left, the Senate on Wednesday night gave the green light to a controversial provision of the justice bill authorizing the remote triggering of cameras or telephone microphones in certain surveys.
Article 3 of the bill of the Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, examined at first reading by the senators, brings several modifications to the criminal procedure. One of them crystallizes the concerns of the left, lawyers and associations. It plans to authorize the remote triggering of computers and other connected devices, without the knowledge of the persons concerned, with two different purposes. On the one hand, real-time geolocation for certain offences. On the other hand, the activation of microphones and cameras to capture sound and images. In the latter case, this provision would be reserved for cases of terrorism, delinquency and organized crime.
“The door open to widespread surveillance”
The Freedoms and Digital Observatory (OLN) denounced a “security overbidding” allowing any connected object to be transformed into a potential “snitch”. For its part, the left has tried, without success, to totally or partially remove provisions deemed “disproportionate”. It is “the door open to widespread surveillance”, said ecologist Guy Benarroche.
“These techniques are already applied,” said the minister, but they require the installation of beacons or microphones and cameras, which entails risks for investigators. The provision is “surrounded by important safeguards”, he added. Its implementation will in particular have to be approved by a judge.
Against the advice of the minister, the Senate adopted an amendment by the leader of LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, which plans to limit the possibility of using geolocation to offenses punishable by at least ten years’ imprisonment, against five years in the original text. The left would have liked to go further, in particular in the explicit protection of journalists, in the same way as lawyers, magistrates or parliamentarians will be.
Article 3 of the bill also provides, among other measures, to extend night searches for the most serious crimes. The Senate has again adopted a government amendment allowing the extension, under certain conditions, of the deadlines for the preliminary investigation.