France Plans to Increase Electronic Surveillance

CSO | December 2 2005

The French National Assembly has voted in favor of a bill enlisting Internet cafes and free Wi-Fi networks in the "fight against terrorism." The bill orders operators of Internet cafe and free wireless access points to keep records of calls and connections made by customers in the same way telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers must, and to make those records available to the police on demand.

The bill, voted Tuesday, now goes on the Senate where it will be discussed in December. The government has used special parliamentary rules to fast-track discussion of the bill.

Online activists reacted angrily to news of the vote.

The Ligue Odebi, a coalition of broadband users, accused the Minister of the Interior of wanting to introduce surveillance of all French Internet users, with no judicial oversight. The bill "opens the door to all sorts of digital errors and threats to private life," the group said on Wednesday.

Amendments to a number of existing laws are contained in the bill, including a law from January 1995 introducing new security measures, and one from June 2004 on the digital economy.

In addition to the new rules on data collection by Internet cafes the bill requires carriers bringing passengers to France to hand over data contained in their reservation and boarding systems. Civil liberties campaigners in the European Union have been campaigning since May 2004 to stop the European Commission from forcing European airlines to hand over their passenger data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The requirements in the French bill apply to airline passengers, and also to rail and maritime passengers.

Other provisions contained in the bill include a widening of the use of video surveillance, and the power to require the owners of private video surveillance cameras to hand over images to the police. In addition, authorities would be able to order the managers of any public space -- be it government office, museum or shop -- to install a video surveillance system. Failure to do so could result in a fine of US $175,000.

The bill would also give police powers to set up permanent, automated video recognition systems for vehicles and their occupants in border areas, or temporary systems at any time authorities request then in order to maintain public order.

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