Comms Snooping in France

The French populace is raising its collective voice in opposition to an arbitrary government decree establishing a national database that many of its critics view as excessively intrusive and ripe for oppressive authoritarian abuse.

Announced in an order revealed July 1st, the 'Edvige' database would contain data about French citizens 13 years of age and older who are active in politics or labor unions, have significant institutional, economic, social or religious roles, or who are considered by the authorities - without probable cause for suspicion - to be likely to breach public order.

Information collected, correlated and analysed could include names and addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, physical appearance (and likely biometrics too), behavioural traits, financial and tax records, plus details about other people who have personal ties to the individual. Critics say the data could extend to ethnic origins and sexual preferences.

Earlier this week, the opposition politician Francois Bayrou said, With just a few clicks of the mouse, any government official or civil servant will have access to intimate data.

Diverse constituencies of French citizens including magistrates' bodies, labor unions, gay rights groups and defenders of human rights and civil liberties have objected that Edvige appears intended to enable the government to intrude excessively on its citizens' privacy.

Michel Pezet, a lawyer and a former member of a French electronic privacy body, wrote: There is nothing in the decree that sets limits or a framework. Whether the database is used with or without moderation depends only on orders from up high.

The Sarkozy government claims the Edvige database would merely centralise information that is already being gathered and retained by separate public security organisations that have recently been merged together.

An online petition calling for the government to abandon its plans to establish Edvige has collected more than 103,700 signatures since July 10th, according to its website.

Several public interest groups have already lodged formal appeals with the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative court, asking that it compel the state to cancel its decree establishing the Edvige database.

One would hope that the right-wing government of Nicolas Sarkozy might recall France's glorious heritage of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" before its citizens recall some other old French traditions from the days of the Revolution... torches, pitchforks and the guillotine.

Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered a rethink of his government's new police database, which is designed to track people as young as 13 and record details such as the sexual orientation and health records of political candidates and trade unionists.

The president has been forced to backtrack after rebellion in his cabinet and a public outcry in which civil liberties campaigners and lawyers suggested France was being turned into a Big Brother state. The accusations threaten to be particularly damaging to the president, who has closely associated himself with policing and security issues.

The security database, known under the acronym Edvige, goes further than any previous French system, gathering personal information on health and sexual orientation and dropping the minimum age for surveillance from 18 to 13. It would allow security officials to track anyone considered a possible threat to public order , and target anyone who has ever stood for public office, politicians, activists, religious figures, trade unionists and business leaders, or anyone playing a role in economic life. Information on health, illnesses, religion, tax, relationships and friendships would be held.

Lawyer Jean-Marc Fedida told Le Parisien the database opened up the possibility of tracking the entire population of France. The defence minister, Hervé Morin, has condemned the tracking of politicians, and the human rights minister, Rama Yade, urged clarification of the inclusion of details on sexual orientation.

Sarkozy yesterday urged his cabinet not to break ranks and has ordered a government review and decisions to protect liberties.

The government could drop the details on sexual orientation and health, but the president is unlikely to relent on tracking children over 13. Youth crime and delinquency and unrest on poor estates are key issues for the president.

Google and Facebook are among a group of net heavyweights taking the French government to court.

The legal challenge at the State Council, France's highest judicial body, has been brought by The French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC) and relates to government plans to keep web users' personal data for a year.

More than 20 firms are involved, including eBay and Dailymotion.

The law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers. This includes users' full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords.

The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded. Police, the fraud office, customs, tax and social security bodies will all have the right of access.

ASIC head Benoit Tabaka believes that the data law is unnecessarily draconian. ASIC also thinks that passwords should not be collected and warned that retaining them could have security implications.