Yesterday evening, the French Constitutional Court released its opinion on the “French Patriot Act”, or Projet de loi relatif au renseignement, a law that increases France’s surveillance capabilities, and expands the power of the Executive Branch at the expense of users’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression. While the Court allowed surveillance to continue within France, there may be a silver lining outside its borders, as the text suggests that surveillance by French intelligence in foreign countries is unconstitutional.…

Today the French National Assembly approved a dangerous new proposal which would allow intelligence services to violate user privacy and harm freedom of expression. The so-called “French Patriot Act” was first introduced shortly after the killings at the newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January of this year. Sadly, the government used the killings as a pretext to push forward legislation that will give the intelligence services the ability to monitor communications with almost no judicial oversight.…