Devices could remotely be used to record sound and images of people suspected of serious crimes, including terrorism and organized crime.<\/p>\n
A French anti-censorship and surveillance group,\u00a0La Quadrature du Net<\/a>\u00a0(LQDN), argued earlier this year that the newly-passed legislation raises significant concerns about the infringement of \u201cfundamental liberties.\u201d LQDN says that people have a right to privacy that is violated by the \u201cheavy-handed\u201d proposal.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s corner argued for an amendment that limits the new remote spying privileges to situations \u201cwhen justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime\u201d and only \u201cfor a strictly proportional duration.\u201d<\/p>\n For authorities to utilize remote spying surveillance measures, a judge must approve the usage. The period of surveillance can be up to six months. Further, the law excludes certain people from surveillance, including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges, and French legislators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re far away from the totalitarianism of\u00a01984<\/em>,\u201d says Dupond-Moretti, adding that \u201cPeople\u2019s lives will be saved\u201d by the new law.<\/p>\n Following a coordinated series of devastating and deadly\u00a0terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015<\/a>, the country has routinely enacted stricter surveillance laws.<\/p>\n Critics have argued<\/a>\u00a0that France has continually eroded human rights through its various surveillance measures, harkening back to\u00a0rebukes of the Patriot Act<\/a>\u00a0that American lawmakers instituted following the September 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n Despite unrest within civil liberties groups, the French National Assembly passed its new justice reform bill, including surveillance measures, in a landslide vote of 80 to 24.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/french-surveillance-illustration-800x413-1.webp\")
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