Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

France To Open Preliminary Investigation About PRISM Program

Posted by samzenpus on from the getting-to-the-bottom-of-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Paris' prosecutor office opened a preliminary investigation after a complaint by two human rights associations who hope to determine the roles played by companies in the PRISM program. Two million communications (phone calls, SMS and mails) are said to have been intercepted in France by U.S. agencies."

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Human Rights voliations by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

    The actions of the NSA and GCHQ are clear human rights violations in Europe. I hope both are pursued for this crime. Presumably the French are investigating GCHQ as well as the NSA.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Human Rights voliations by tao · · Score: 5, Informative

      In before the, now, stereotypical US response of "your governments do it too!"...

      1) No, we have liberty and freedom in Europe.

      I dunno about other European countries, but in Sweden we definitely have a counterpart to NSA (FRA) that does similarly all-encompassing surveillance, all of course under the guise of "anti-terrorism". As an added "bonus" the laws regulating FRA explicitly says that they're allowed to exchange the information with foreign nations (read the US).

      To dupe citizens into believing that the information isn't abused (of course the mere fact that the information is collected is abuse, but...) a special group has been set up to monitor the use of the information. But despite finding a lot of violations of the (already very permissive) regulations, FRA does not rectify any of their so called mistakes.

      One example is that they're not allowed to save the information more than a certain time period (I believe it's 6 months). "Oh, but we copied the information to a different database! Now it's not raw data anymore, it's refined intellgence reports that aren't covered by that time limitation".

      But other than that I agree. Two (or many) wrongs doesn't make a right.

    2. Re:Human Rights voliations by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Informative

      So what will they do to the USA if found guilty?
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States shows the "outcome".
      PRISM will end up as a great read, fun for historical and computer science types (from the view of the US gov).
      More interesting will be the reputations of the big US brands, their long term EU and French standing. Local reps trying anything to get in front of any new local press as daily details become public.
      This is not tax or some other day to day detail that can be PR away via help from some US firm. France recalls the Vichy days, Indochina, French Algeria, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf_Aquitaine#Fraud_scandal and their public is educated and will enjoy the topics.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"