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France

France to introduce new anti-terror measures

This will allow French authorities to carry out surveillance of people suspected of preparing terrorist” acts without prior authorisation from a judge.

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It will also enable the authorities to snoop on electronic communications and telephone conversations if there is a direct link with an ongoing enquiry into a suspect.

French spies will also be allowed to use “devices that enable words and images to be recorded or programmes that tap electronic data.”

The law enables real-time tracking of what is written on a suspect's computer and forces Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to give up data if the security services request this.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls will be presenting the draft law in cabinet on Thursday.

The proposal has already sparked outrage from those who see it as an attack on individual freedoms, in the country that sees itself as the cradle of human rights.

Mindful of a potential backlash, authorities have been stressing this is not a French-style “Patriot Act”, which was introduced by the United States in response to the attacks on September 11, 2001, giving intelligence agencies broad powers to spy on its citizens.

Procedures will be “precisely defined”, any request for data will have to be “justified” and decisions to begin surveillance will be taken personally by the prime minister and will be for a limited time.

Polls have showed that the French want to step up surveillance in the wake of the January attacks.
 

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