France Passes Ugly New Internet Surveillance Law

What will the law allow the government to do?

The law will let French intelligence agencies track and record any mobile, internet, digital communications of suspected terrorists – with no judicial oversight. Recording devices may be placed in suspects’ homes and key loggers can be placed on suspects’ devices to keep a real-time record of all digital activity. The law will also allow French intelligence to pull up and run analyses on global views of internet messaging, to get a sense for who is communicating with whom. Actual message content will still be hidden, unless permission is granted by an independent panel.

Consequences for internet users living in France

Since this law essentially will force ISPs and telecoms to hand over data to French authorities on demand, there is no doubt that if you are living in France and using internet, you may feel leery of being observed. Although the government has stated that it would use their new powers in a targeted way, you may not feel, for whatever valid reason, that your trust extends so far.

What can you do?

If you simply don’t want your privacy to be compromised by the new law, you can use a VPN to protect your privacy at all times. VPNs change your IP address to that of a different country. For example, if you’re using a VPN which originates in Holland, even if you live in France you’ll appear to be surfing the web and sending emails from the land of Gouda and tulips. When you pick a VPN server in a neighbouring country you will experience almost no slowdowns in your internet usage while avoiding all prying by governments. That way you can keep your VPN connection on at all times to enjoy full protection no matter what you’re undertaking on the web; whether it be browsing, watching videos, Skyping away or playing games.