7. June 2021

France’s tepid intelligence reform

Draft law to introduce new data analysis capabilities.

by Jacques FollorouJournalist at Le Monde foreign desk and intelligence issues

Jacques Follorou is a French journalist. He graduated in 1991 from the Journalist Training Center (CFJ), in Paris. He started his career in 1993 working freelance for the weekly Le Canard enchaîné. In 1996, he was hired by the daily Le Monde and worked mostly on legal cases, in particular those related to the financing of political parties and corruption. In 1998, he also covered Corsican terrorism and mafia stories. After the 09/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, he extended his investigative work to the financing of terrorism and more broadly to financial investigations. In 2008, he joined the international desk where he is in charge of Afghanistan and Pakistan, terrorism and intelligence issues. In 2013, he started working on the material provided by Edward Snowden thanks to an exclusive contact, in France, to the american activist lawyer Glenn Greenwald to whom the former contractor of the National Security Agency (NSA) entrusted his archives. It was the beginning of a direct dialogue with the American whistleblower and ongoing investigations into the French government's surveillance system. Since then, Jacques Follorou has continued his investigations into the intelligence world by contributing, in particular, to the revelations, in 2018 and 2019, of the interference of Russian espionage in Europe. He dedicates a part his work trying to point out the weaknesses of the French legal framework for intelligence. Jacques Follorou is the author of several books, including, in 2018, "L’Etat secret" (The Secret State, Democracy Undermined, Fayard), which comprises an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden. Jacques Follorou considers security and freedom as not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, freedom and debate contribute to security.

14. May 2021

CJEU rulings v. French intelligence legislation

The Conseil d'État deliberately misinterpreted the EU…

by Arthur Messaud & Noémie LevainLa Quadrature du Net

Arthur Messaud has been working at La Quadrature du Net for four years on issues regarding state and capitalism surveillance, trying to change the law before courts and parliaments. Noémie Levain is a privacy and technology lawyer at the Paris bar and a member of La Quadrature du Net. Within this organisation, she works on strategic litigation and helps promote actions against surveillance.

23. April 2021

French Council of State discovers the ‘philosopher’s stone’ of data retention

A legal analysis on the Court’s recent ruling.

by Theodore ChristakisProfessor of International and European Law at University Grenoble Alpes (France)

Theodore Christakis (@TC_IntLaw) is Professor of International and European Law at University Grenoble Alpes (France), Director of Research for Europe with the Cross-Border Data Forum, and a former Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the New York University Cybersecurity Centre. He is also Chair on the Legal and Regulatory Implications of Artificial Intelligence with the Multidisciplinary Institute on AI (ai-regulation.com), Director of the Centre for International Security and European Studies, and Co-Director of the Grenoble Alpes Data Institute. He is a honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France. At the national level, he has exercised responsibilities on digital issues as an active member of the French National Committee for Digital Ethics (created in December 2019 at the request of the French Prime Minister) and as a past member of the French National Digital Council, an independent advisory commission of the French government (2018-2020). He has published or co-edited 11 books, he is author or co-author of more than 88 academic articles and book chapters, and he has been invited to give lectures and present his work at conferences, workshops, and seminars on over a hundred occasions in more than 31 different countries. As an international expert he has advised governments, international organisations, and private companies on issues concerning international and European law, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data protection law. He also has experience working as external Data Protection Officer (GDPR compliance) for tech companies.

8. April 2021

France’s police bill: surveillance for the long haul

The French state’s illiberal drift.

by Félix TréguerFélix Tréguer, post-doctoral researcher at CERI-Sciences Po, Editor-in-Chief of about:intel, & member of La Quadrature du Net, a French digital rights group

Félix Tréguer is associate researcher at CNRS and post-doctoral researcher at CERI Sciences Po in Paris. He is also a founding member of the French digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net and holds a PhD in political studies from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). His research blends political history and theory, law as well as media and technology studies to look at the political history of the Internet and computing, power practices like surveillance and censorship, the algorithmic governmentality of the public sphere, and more broadly the digital transformation of the state and of the security field. Since 2013, part of Félix's work focuses on state surveillance and intelligence. For the research project UTIC, he studied the process of legalisation of hitherto illegal surveillance practices by French intelligence, a process which culminated in the adoption of the 2015 Intelligence Act. As an advisor to civil society groups, he has taken part in various advocacy and strategic litigation efforts against surveillance laws before French and European Courts. His more recent work also looks at the role of private companies in surveillance assemblages, either in the context of Internet communications or "Smart City" policing.

1. April 2021

Beyond Europe: the political economy of bulk data collection

South Africa’s mass surveillance ruling offers an…

by Jane DuncanProfessor, Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of Johannesburg

Jane Duncan is a professor of Journalism, Film and Television. She is author of ‘Stopping the Spies: Constructing and Resisting the Surveillance State in South Africa’ (Wits University Press, 2018).

5. March 2021

GCHQ’s ethical approach to AI: an initial human rights-based response

It’s more than just the Right to Privacy at stake.

by Daragh MurraySenior Lecturer, University of Essex School of Law and Human Rights Centre

Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre & School of Law. He was recently awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship: ‘What does Artificial Intelligence Mean for the Future of Democratic Society? Examining the societal impact of AI and whether human rights can respond’. This 4 year inter-disciplinary project began in January 2020, and the project team will draw on expertise in human rights law, sociology, and philosophy. Current research has a particular emphasis on law enforcement, intelligence agency, and military AI applications, although the scope of the project is broader. Daragh’s research expertise is in international human rights law and the law of armed conflict. He has a specific interest in artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, and in using human rights law to more effectively inform ex ante decision-making processes.

1. March 2021

Brexit highlights the EU and UK data protection regimes

The consequences for large-scale intelligence collection…

by Douwe KorffEmeritus Professor of International Law at London Metropolitan University

Douwe Korff is a Dutch comparative and international lawyer specialising in human rights and data protection. He is emeritus professor of international law at London Metropolitan University and visiting professor at the universities of Zagreb and Rijeka in Croatia; an Associate of the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford, a Visiting Fellow at Yale University (Information Society Project), and a Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Human Rights of the European University of Viadrina, Berlin.

15. February 2021

A new digital hub for intelligence law and oversight

One searchable database for all documents about…

by Kilian ViethResearcher and Project Manager, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung

Kilian Vieth manages Stiftung Neue Verantwortung’s work on digital rights, surveillance, and democracy. He is the project manager for the European Intelligence Oversight Network (EION), which provides European intelligence oversight officials and other experts a space for regular and structured exchange. As a researcher in the GUARDINT project, Kilian studies the potentials and limits of overseeing surveillance and works on the development of an intelligence oversight index and a surveillance law database. His research focusses on the democratic control of intelligence and reform approaches for rights-based and more efficient intelligence and surveillance policy in Germany and Europe. Beyond that, his research interests include digital human rights and critical security studies. He was invited to testify before the parliament of Hesse on regional intelligence legislation. Kilian previously worked on different research projects at the Center for Internet and Human Rights (CIHR) at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, where he is still a Fellow. He has also worked as a consultant and project manager in political campaigning at a communications consultancy in Berlin. He holds a dual master’s degree in Political Science and European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris (France) and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) and a bachelor’s degree in Public Management and Governance from Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen (Germany).

8. February 2021

The quantum threat: why we need regulation and transparency

The high-stakes game of shaping the internet of tomorrow.

by Juljan KrausePolicy Associate and PhD Researcher in quantum communication, cybersecurity and security studies at the University of Southampton

Juljan Krause is a Policy Associate and PhD Researcher at the University of Southampton where he investigates the global security and governance challenges of quantum communication networks. Juljan also works on the UKRI’s Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub where he develops policy briefs on AI-powered defence and cybersecurity projects. A graduate from the London School of Economics and King’s College London, Juljan was a policy advisor with the UK Cabinet Office and a Teaching Fellow at the LSE. Having followed a trajectory from philosophy to computer science and mathematics, Juljan remains the Editor-in-Chief of the established online journal Evental Aesthetics.

30. December 2020

A year in surveillance

A brief overview of the voices on about:intel in 2020.

by Jan-David Franke(former) Editor, about:intel

Jan-David is former editor of about:intel. Based at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung in Berlin, he is interested in digital rights, democratic intelligence governance, and the intersection of democracy and media in the public sphere. Before joining Stiftung Neue Verantwortung and building about:intel, he worked as an investigative reporter and editor for the Bangkok Post. Jan-David holds an M.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a B.A. in Integrated Social Sciences from Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Edinburgh.