French legislators have begun studying a new draft law to permit the use of drones by police for surveillance – a practice that was upended by legal rulings earlier this year. Debate over the measure offers insight into how state deployment of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) has become iconic of wider French concerns with potential data and privacy violations by authorities.
One more time: new bill seeks to define drone surveillance struck down in earlier law
The bill was introduced Tuesday by members of the ruling right-leaning majority. Sponsors are still smarting over the censoring of key articles in previous security legislation they passed – particularly its authorization of UAVs in the surveillance of protests and demonstrations. The chief argument in France’s high legal authority striking down that use of drones by police was the law failed to sufficiently define how and why those flights would be conducted, or stipulate safeguards to the privacy of…
