French Version of 'Patriot Act' Becomes Law

Taco Cowboy writes: Thanks to the Charlie Hebdo massacre and other instances of terrorism, the French legislature has voted 438 to 86 in favor of the "Intelligence Service Bill," essentially a French version of the Patriot Act. It awards the French intelligence services sweeping powers to tap and intercept any kind of digital correspondence, including phone conversations, emails, and social media.

The bill decrees that hosting providers and Internet service providers in France must be equipped with a "black box" that can retain all digital communications from customers. "The new law would create a 13-member National Commission to Control Intelligence Techniques, which would be made up of six magistrates from the Council of State and the Court of Appeals, three representatives of the National Assembly, three senators from the upper house of Parliament and a technical expert. ... The only judicial oversight is a provision that allows the commission to lodge a complaint with the Council of State, but lawyers are doubtful that it could be convened on a routine basis." We previously discussed news that ISPs may leave France in protest if the bill was passed. Now we'll know shortly if those ISPs will live up to their word.

Comments

Re:Not law yet

[Jesrad]

In any case, the french hosting company altern.org has announced it is definitely moving to Norway.

Their CEO left this message on their main page, here it is translated:

Altern shuts its doors... again

Following the voting of the secret services law in the National Assembly yesterday #PJLRenseignement, the webhosting company Altern closes its services while moving abroad.

For twenty years Altern.org helped make free speech rights a reality for citizens and residents of this country. During these years political leaders, corporate representatives and assorted top brass of any kind never ceased their efforts at ending this happy period of liberty that the Internet had started.

We did get plenty of laughs as they scrambled around trying to roll back the sea with Maginot lines of the likes of the Hadopi.
But today they got the upper hand by forcing us, by law, to install at the heart of our infrastructures "black box" analysers under the sole control of secret services.
This grip on telecom services induces self-censorship of our public expression and annihilates our privacy on the Internet.

For us just one day under global surveillance is one day too many.
Altern.org refuses these secret services black boxes, shuts its doors immediately, and will reopen them in a few days from another country that is more respective of individual liberties.