By mandating backdoors, the French government is not only compromising the security of all users, citizens and businesses alike - but this amended “Narcotrafic” law is most likely also in contradiction with European data protection laws like the GDPR, and the German IT Security Act and the TKG.
What is the “Narcotrafic” law?
The organization La Quadrature du Net has put together an extensive explanation on what the amendment of the “Narcotrafic” law includes. It shows that the risks for everybody’s security and privacy much outweigh the benefits it would bring for law enforcement.
The so-called “Narcotrafic” law attacks the protection of encrypted couriers (such as Signal or WhatsApp) by imposing the installation of backdoors for the police and intelligence.
By amending the legal regime for organized crime, which is applicable in other cases, this law does not apply only to drug trafficking. It can even be used to monitor activists.
The case file, a provision of the law, makes secret the documents of a file detailing the modalities of the use of surveillance techniques during an investigation. This undermines the right to self-defence and prevents the population from knowing the extent of the supervisory capacity of the judicial police.
The text provides for the police to remotely activate the microphones and cameras of fixed and mobile connected devices (computers, telephones, etc.) to spy on people.
It expands the authorization of the use of “black boxes”, a technique for analyzing the data of all our communications and exchanges on the Internet for the purpose of “fighting crime and organized crime”.
The police will be able to tighten up their policy of censoring content on the Internet by extending it to publications related to the use and sale of drugs. The risks of abuse for freedom of expression are therefore amplified.