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France 'Suspends' Creation of Big-brother Database

The French government will "suspend" the use of new software for recording the personal habits and affiliations of its citizens in a police database, following an outcry by civil rights groups.

By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)

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Tuesday's suspension only concerns the test phase for Ardoise "for the simple reason that software can't enter service until the CNIL has given its opinion and Council of State has examined the statutory order concerning the new system," the Alliot-Marie's spokesman Gerard Gachet wrote in an e-mail Thursday.

After the CNIL's April 15 letter, Alliance Police Nationale, a trade union for police officers, called for the test version to be amended in accordance with CNIL's recommendations so that its use could not lead to discrimination.

Another police union, Synergie-Officiers, said the software had been created too hastily, without consideration of operational needs or officers' opinions.

But Synergie-Officiers supported storage of information about the race and religion of suspects and victims. In France some violent crimes attract tougher sentences if motivated by racial or religious hatred, and the union warned that if campaign groups want such hate crimes pursued more vigorously, then police need a way to identify the relevant information about attackers and victims during investigations.