French MPs back controversial mass surveillance bill

France moved a step closer to mass surveillance on Tuesday when the lower house of parliament backed a bill that widens the array of espionage tools that intelligence services can use in their operations.

The bill, which has been in the works for the past two years, is not just aimed at fighting Islamist terrorists like those who killed 17 people in January following the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. It is also designed to protect the country's economic, scientific and "essential foreign policy" interests, combat organised crime and prevent "collective violence" that could "seriously" disrupt public order.

The draft, which has yet to be reviewed by the senate before becoming law, would allow French intelligence officers to install recording devices in private homes and cars, intercept phone conversations outside of judicial oversight and collect connection data of suspects. It goes further in the case of a suspected terrorist threat by enabling French agents to plug black boxes directly in to networks and servers of telecom and internet operators to monitor online traffic and detect suspicious behaviour with the help of algorithms.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has opted for the accelerated "emergency" legislative procedure to pass the bill, has defended the measures as "important progress for our intelligence services and our democracy."

It is crucial, the government has emphasised, to give a legal framework to intelligence agents who are already pursuing some of these practices illegally, following the examples of the US and the UK.

"This bill gives concrete guarantees to our fellow citizens to an (unprecedented) extent in matter of intelligence," Mr Valls said in parliament.

The bill is expected to gather enough support in the National Assembly, but some lawmakers, as well as many lawyers, judges, unions and human rights activists have criticised its far-reaching scope, the intrusive nature of some of the surveillance methods and the insufficient checks and balances.

Opponents have underlined abuses disclosed by US whistleblower Edward Snowden and questioned the impact of the measures in solving jihadism cases. All the latest terrorists, they point out, were known and tracked by intelligence services.

"This bill is unbalanced, it goes too far with no proper controls in place since most of the power will lie with the prime minister," the judges union said.

"Journalists, judges, politicians and people who have unwittingly come into contact with alleged suspects could be subject to invasive surveillance," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe. "French authorities could soon be bugging peoples' homes, cars and phone lines without approval from a judge, even where there is no reasonable suspicion that they have done anything wrong."

The far-right National Front party, which typically favours tough security measures, has opposed the bill for fear its members could be targeted by the measures in the name of the country's national security interests.

An independent commission, mostly formed of lawmakers and magistrates, will be set up to review the surveillance operations, but it will not be able to block them. The prime minister is the ultimate decision maker. If an operation requires immediate action, intelligence services can decide to go ahead without seeking permission. However, if within 48 hours the commission issues a negative opinion, the prime minister can halt the operation.

"The government is telling us they won't store the data and that it will remain anonymous, but how do we know that?," said Philippe Aigrain, a computer scientist and a member of the parliamentary commission on digital matters. Whistleblowers will face criminal charges, Mr Aigrain also worries.

Four months after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, few lawmakers have stood in the way of the government, however. On Monday evening, not far from the National Assembly, a thousand protesters stood gloomily in the rain. One slogan read: "What if Petain had the same tools?" in reference to the French head of state Philippe Petain who collaborated with the Nazis during the second world war.

"It's crazy, there has been no proper debate," said Fleur Breteau, a 39-year old Greenpeace sympathiser. "This protest is minuscule when it should be as big as the Charlie Hebdo marches."

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