France passes bill to allow police to remotely activate phone camera and microphone to spy on people

Einar@lemmy.ml to World News@lemmy.ml – 591 points –
France passes bill to allow police remotely activate phone camera, microphone, spy on people
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You know that America just... does this, right? No bill, no law... In fact it was the first to do this at all. It's why in crime shows they remove the battery (from phone where you still can, of course.)

No, the "Patriot" Act did authorize stuff like this in the US. There was also the "Freedom" Act, and generally this is all FISA stuff that has very low standards for what's allowed.

It is not legal for police to spy on citizens via their phone cameras in the US…

Police, no. Homeland security? crickets

Still no. Do they do it anyway? Probably, but that doesn't make it legal.

If I do something, people find out about it, and I don’t get arrested, it’s defacto legal

It would require a warrant signed by a judge with probable cause.

Wiretap warrants aren't easy.

It will be like that in France as well. But once they have the tools, there will be abuse.