Drones are not enough for them: what if the police activated the microphone and the camera of your phone remotely?


Vincent Mannessier

May 22, 2023 at 5:45 p.m.

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Eric Dupond Moretti

Twitter screenshot © justice_gouv

The shock strategy continues. While associations for the defense of freedoms are still fighting against authorizations for drones in law enforcementa new bill could well upset their agenda.

The Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, tabled an orientation and programming bill for the Ministry of Justice on May 3. Among the measures announced, article 3 caused a reaction: it would allow police and gendarmes, with the agreement of a judge, to remotely access the microphone and the camera of any device. electronically, everywhere in France.

The provisions of Article 3

Concerned and on the front line, the Council of the Bar Association reacted a few days later in a press release which details its concerns about the bill. Indeed, after formulating some criticisms of the text in general, such as the lack of consultation with lawyers and magistrates or the lack of protection for those searched, it is this famous article 3 that focuses its attention. The latter provides that, for any crime or misdemeanor punishable by at least five years in prison, the judge may authorize “the remote activation of an electronic device without the knowledge or consent of its owner or possessor for the sole purpose of locating it in real time”.

If the text explicitly prohibits the collection and transcription of information other than that allowing localization, the provision is very insufficient for the Bar Association. For the latter, in fact, the ban on data collection in no way prevents listening to the conversations of the individuals concerned, and in particular those they might hold with their lawyer, unequivocally calling into question professional secrecy and the right to fair defense.

whatsapp spy © Shutterstock x Clubic.com

© Shutterstock

Don’t worry, nothing is going to change… it was already the case

If this bill may look like an incredible step back in the right to privacy, it actually aims to provide a framework for an already widespread practice, but in a legal vagueness. Because investigators have been happily using cookies and spyware for a long time to obtain information on suspected persons, but until now, the measure could at least be challenged by a lawyer in the context of a trial.

Matthieu Audibert, a gendarmerie officer, explains for his part that the measure, very framed, can only be authorized for certain specific offenses in order to avoid abuse. This should reassure the Bar Association. After all, it is not because the police cheerfully violate the procedures for receiving victims, law enforcement identification numbers, the use of drones, LBDs and other weapons. “non-lethal”or even secrecy of the instruction that they will not respect it.

Sources: Paris Lawyers, reflections, BFM TV, Senate



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