The French National Assembly, which serves as the lower house of the country's legislative body, passed a provision that enables the remote surveillance of devices as part of a legal reform package on Wednesday. 

According to Sputnik news, which cited the live stream of the parliament meeting as evidence, this provision allows for the surveillance of gadgets when their owners are suspected of taking part in a terrorist attack or engaged in organized crime.

The spying provision, which is part of a larger court reform bill, has come under fire from the left and human rights advocates as an authoritarian snoopers' charter, despite the fact that court Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti maintains that it would only apply to "dozens of cases a year."

The bill would enable the geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years in prison and cover laptops, vehicles, and other linked things in addition to phones.

Additionally, tools could be remotely activated to record audio and visual evidence of suspects in organized crime, delinquency, and terrorism.

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”.

An amendment restricting the use of remote espionage to "when justified by the nature and seriousness of the crime" and "for a strictly proportional duration" was added by MPs in President Emmanuel Macron's camp during the discussion on Wednesday.

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

And sensitive professions including doctors, journalists, lawyers, judges and MPs would not be legitimate targets.

"We're far away from the totalitarianism of '1984'," George Orwell's novel about a society under total surveillance, Dupond-Moretti said.

"People's lives will be saved" by the law, he added.

The Wednesday legislation comes against the backdrop of widespread riots and protests in France following the death of a 17-year-old shot by police in a Paris suburb. Public opposition to the use of drones by the police for surveillance purposes in France was evident during the riots.

Image source: AP