French Authorities Using ‘NSA-Style Methods’ To Spy On Citizens: Report
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France’s foreign intelligence service, the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), has been sweeping up nearly all data transmissions, including telephone calls, e-mails and social media activity, that come in and out of France, reported French daily Le Monde on Thursday, claiming that the French state was able to use the surveillance “to spy on anybody at any time”.
France’s foreign intelligence service, the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), has been sweeping up nearly all data transmissions, including telephone calls, e-mails and social media activity, that come in and out of France, reported French daily Le Monde on Thursday, claiming that the French state was able to use the surveillance “to spy on anybody at any time”.
Le Monde, which based its report on unnamed intelligence sources as well as remarks made publicly by intelligence officials, accused the DGSE of performing the same kind of data collection as the American National Security Agency (NSA), but doing so without any clear legal authority or proper supervision.
The system is run with “complete discretion, at the margins of legality and outside all serious control,” the newspaper said, describing the process as “a-legal.”
The DGSE “systematically collects electromagnetic signals emitted by computers in France, as well as the data feed between France and abroad: the entirety of our communications are being spied upon”, said the report.
[quote]”The politicians know about it, but secrecy is the rule: this French Big Brother is clandestine,” added Le Monde, saying, “It is out of control.”[/quote]The DGSE was not immediately available for comment, when approached by several news organizations. Le Monde’s report also came amid a storm of allegations that the US was spying regularly on European citizens and embassies. Ironically, French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday had threatened to block EU-US trade negotiations after reports on the US activities.
According to the New York Times, some French officials did say privately on Thursday that there was a difference between data collection in the name of security and spying on allied nations and the European Union. The same French officials added that they were not spying on the American Embassy in France, contrary to the alleged activities in the US.
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[quote]Le Monde acknowledged that the French system “is clearly valuable for the fight against terrorism, but it allows for spying on anyone, anywhere.”[/quote]The DGSE’s “immense database” is reportedly being stored in the basements of its Paris headquarters; and can be accessed by seven other intelligence bodies, including the DCRI internal intelligence agency and the DRM military intelligence agency.
Quoting previous remarks by Bernard Barbier, technical director of the DGSE, the paper said that the DGSE’s database was “probably the biggest information centre in Europe after the English”.
