France’s constitutional council on Thursday blocked one of the most sensitive measures in the justice bill: the remote activation of cellphones and electronic devices to listen and record people involved in certain investigations without their knowledge, AFP reported.

According to the statement, this measure “violates” the “right to respect for private life” and “cannot be considered proportionate to the objective”. However, the Council approved the use of this technique for geolocation.

Deputies from La France insoumise (LFI, Radical Left) appealed to the Constitutional Council after the law was passed on October 11.

In censoring remote video and audio capture, the Council noted that the measure “allows the recording of words and images in relation to both persons who subject to investigation. , as well as third parties”.

This measure is regarded as “a particularly serious violation of the right to private life.”

The government intended to allow this new investigative technique in terrorism, criminal and organized crime cases.

After criticism from NGOs and lawyers, the left condemned “a very dangerous bias”, even “authoritarian drift”.

These are “dozens of cases a year”, which is “far from the totalitarianism of 1984”, a novel by George Orwell, replied the French Minister of Justice Eric Dupont-Moretti.

The minister compared this measure to the “old technique” of planting microphones or cameras on suspects.

First of all, he noted that remote activation of connected devices is already used by “special services” without the permission of a judge, which would be relevant in this case.