France runs vast electronic spying operation

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jul 5, 2013

Former NSA contractor Snowden leaked a trove of information about US electronic surveillance programme

(Al Jazeera) – French intelligence services have put in place a giant electronic surveillance gathering network similar to American spying programme, Prism, leading French newspaper Le Monde has reported.

Citing no sources, the paper said France’s Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), the country’s foreign intelligence agency, systematically collects information about all electronic data sent by computers and telephones in France, as well as communications between France and abroad.

According to Le Monde, data on “all emails, SMSs, telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter posts” are collected and stored in a massive three-floor underground bunker at the DGSE’s headquarters in Paris.

The paper specified that it was the communications’ metadata – such as when was call made and where an author was when she sent an email – that is being archived, not their content.

Government officials have not responded to requests for comment on the report, the AFP news agency said.

‘Vast archive’

Le Monde said the vast archive of tens of millions of gigabytes, is accessible to France’s other spy agencies, including military intelligence, domestic intelligence, Paris police and a special financial crimes task force.