The European Parliament agreed on Thursday (4 July) to launch an inquiry into US spy allegations, amid revelations that France has its own secret surveillance programme.

Le Monde newspaper on Thursday said that France intercepts the metadata of emails, telephone calls and all Internet activity that passes through Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo. […]

Interceptions are subject to procedural oversight, says the French data protection authority, Cnil, but the system itself, notes the newspaper, operates in a legal limbo. […]

Jeremie Zimmerman, co-founder of the Paris-based internet campaign group La Quadrature du Net, told this website that: "The DGSE surveillance appears to target mostly French citizens and their foreign correspondents, and not the whole of the world's citizens like with Prism."

He said any abuse by the DGSE would be easier to stop compared to Prism because the US intelligence agency NSA operates with complete impunity.

“Still, it is urgent that we have a proper public debate in order to oppose generalised surveillance by states and companies, as a major risk for our democracies,” he added. […]

http://euobserver.com/article/120763