France's National Assembly has passed a law that enables law enforcement agencies to remotely monitor suspected criminals by activating cameras, microphones, and GPS on their smartphones and other devices, Habr.com has reported.
However, such powers can only be obtained with a court's permission. The law will not apply to journalists, lawyers, and representatives of other "sensitive" professions.
Remote surveillance can only be used in serious cases and for a maximum period of six months. Police will be able to track the location of individuals when they face a potential prison sentence of five years or more.
So far, only the lower house of the French parliament has approved the law, as amendments have been made. It must now go through the approval process in the Senate.
Human rights activists in France have expressed opposition to the new law. They believe that authorities will use vague wording to target environmental activists and other individuals. Human rights advocates also pointed out that the police can already exploit security vulnerabilities in user devices instead of reporting them to manufacturers.
In response, the country's Ministry of Justice assured that surveillance will only be used in "dozens" of cases each year and will help save human lives.
In 2022, Associated Press journalists discovered that US law enforcement secretly uses the Fog Reveal program, which allows the processing, filtering, and storage of user location data. In this case, law enforcement gains access to the data without a warrant and does not notify users.
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