Fighting against surveillance has never been easy. But in the past year it has been specially tough in France. This talk is about shedding light on the many situations where the French State used surveillance to increase repression, mainly against activists, during the last months. Not to despair of this, but willing to provide a sincere overview to the rest of the world, La Quadrature du Net proposes to depict this situation as a satirical tale, with its own characters, plots and suspense. We want to show the political tension going on right now in France and how the checks and balances are lacking to stop this headlong rush to a surveillance state.
Looking back to France in 2023, what do we see? Implementation of new technologies such as drones, DNA marking or new generation of spywares. Also, an intensification of political surveillance, either by law enforcement deploying disproportionate means of investigations towards environmental activists or intelligence services using cameras or GPS beacons to spy on places or people that they find too radical. It was also the year of the “8 December” case, a judicial case where among other things, encrypted communications of the prosecuted persons were considered as signs of "clandestinity" that reveal criminal intentions.
On top of this, we also had to deal with the legalization of biometric surveillance for the Olympics and massive censorship of social networks when riots erupted in suburbs against police violence.
This talk is about showing the reality of the situation at stake right now in France, and how it could influence the rest of Europe. At the end, we hope to raise awareness in the international community and start thinking about how, together, we can put pressure on a country who uses its old reputation to pretend to be respectful of human rights.
French version: https://video.lqdn.fr/w/rXmBKD6NcfxWxJEPHUZc4Z
German version: https://video.lqdn.fr/w/315ZAQFMTMG7wqiMDdGvsi
What a nice place to be in.
Honnestly, it get worst every year. At each terrorist attack, they increase their mass surveillance system and migration's rule, summon state urgency then never lift it off.
And with the upcoming ~~JO~~ Olympic Game, i want to thank and apologize to the supporters, the beta-testers of our mass surveillance tool for improving them. 😭
Does the population not care? I thought France would be one of the hardest place to do this kinds of stuff with the propensity for protests.
They don't care when it's about computer and network. It's part of their lack of knowledge about technology and "they don't care because they have nothing to hide" same as everywhere. They don't see the danger.
Only association and libriste (libre software) are well versed on these matter and worried.
The protest are often used to defend our minimum wage, life comfort, environnement, unjust price, worker's right.
And it's costly because some people don't have enough money, low vacation but we do it for everyone.
you shouldn't see us as an country that have the propensy to protest a lot. That's a fight for our freedom. You should join us :)
And if the protest last several month, it's not because of us. Macron's government don't listen to people and he only won because we wanted to avoid RN, a faschist party. And sadly Macron is closer to RN's ideas. He is not a centrist but extrem right.
Yes, we protest a lot and countries should protest a lot. Don't watch, do it. I hope, one day, when we do several strike it will vetoed the current law/project and let people vote it :)
I'm not faulting the French for protesting. It takes balls to do it, especially with your police. I just don't if it helps a lot anymore. Can't Macron just 49-3 whatever he wants and be done with it?
Right now, the only thing I do is force everybody who really wants to talk to me to use Signal, I proselytize Linux and opensource at work and in private (save 1 person, my family is completely on linux, they have reduced their amazon usage considerably, google and facebook are more difficult to get rid of though...), I don't vote strategically but out of conviction, I don't buy from brands I don't believe in (and I don't make up excuses to do so), I'm lucky enough to live in a city where a car is unncessary, meat enters my stomach once a month or so, and that's where I draw the line. Maybe becoming a union member will be in the books someday, maybe even protesting, but for now, becoming financially independent is the goal.
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