FIDH and LDH file lawsuit in the Snowden Affair
The World | 11.07.2013 at 08:30 • Updated 11.07.2013 at 9:27

After the measured reaction of the French government in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about the global espionage system set up by the American Security Agency (NSA), the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the League of Human Rights (LDH) jointly filed a complaint against X, on Thursday, July 11, with the public prosecutor of Paris. Their lawsuit points to several offenses: unauthorized access to automated data processing systems, illegal collection of personal data, invasion of privacy, and interference with the secrecy of electronic correspondence. The wide range is as a result of the extent of the former NSA technician's allegations relayed by the Guardian, the Washington Post and Der Spiegel.
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Using a system called Prism, the two U.S. agencies can scan communications exchanged on Facebook, Google or Microsoft. Affirmations contested by the corporations concerned, which didn't deny their occasional collaboration with the NSA within a legal framework. In late June, we learned that the United States, via the NSA, had engaged in espionage on its allies, including the Europeans. Several embassies in Washington and some protected European Union sites were bugged.
For Patrick Baudouin, lawyer and honorary president of the FIDH, "these charges, of exceptional gravity, did not elicit adequate reactions. Since the Patriot Act in 2001, there have been constant abuses in the name of the fight against terrorism. We threw away all the safeguards that democracies have, when it comes to investigating citizens, by exploiting fear for demagogic ends. The use of drones, in contravention to international law (...), is based on the same principle." Michel Tubiana, historical lawyer for LDH, says he same thing. "You can not with impunity, in an imperial manner, project your laws beyond your borders without being held to account."
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For now, this initiative of the FIDH and LDH seems like an isolated effort. Only the association "Europe versus Facebook" made up of mostly Austrian students, announced it has filed a series of complaints against the European subsidiaries of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo! for their alleged cooperation with the NSA in Prism program. After the revelations of
Le Monde about the French Big Brother, a complaint against the practices of the DGSE, outside any legal framework, is being studied by the organizations defending human rights.
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http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2013/07/11/la-fidh-et-la-ldh-portent-plainte-dans-l-affaire-snowden_3445855_651865.html?utm_source=Kazi+Media+Group&utm_medium=Kazi+Media+Group