France lawmakers have allowed France police to be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphones and GPS of their phones and other devices.

The spying provision has been attacked by defenders as an authoritarian snoopers charter though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only” dozens of cases a year”.

Suspects in a crime could face a five year sentence, if they cover their laptops, cars or any other object connected as well as phones.

The devices could be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organized crime.

The provisions “raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,” digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May statement.

It cited the “right to security , right to a private life and to private correspondence “and “the right to come and go freely”, calling the proposal part of a “slide into heavy-handed security”.

The Debate

During a debate on Wednesday, MPs in President Emmanuel Macron’s camp inserted an amendment limiting the use of remote spying to “when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime “and “for a strictly proportional duration”.

Any use of he provision must be approved by the judge, while the total duration of the surveillance cannot exceed six months.

Professions such as doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and MPs will not be legitimate targets.

“We’re far away from the totalitarianism of’1984′,” George Orwell’s novel about society under total surveillance , Dupond-Moretti said.

“People’s lives will be save” by the law, he added.

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