They will be used to feed the Amesys Eagles !
The famous "black boxes" have been in service since last month. It is an Internet communication data analysis tool.
Since the beginning of October, the intelligence services have been using a "black box". A device for analyzing online communications data detailed by Francis Delon, president of the National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques (CNCTR) during a symposium on Tuesday in Grenoble, reported by Le Monde.
An algorithm to sort data
The so-called "black boxes", an intelligence technique that aims to "detect connections likely to reveal a terrorist threat", had never been activated before. However, they had been provided for in the law for a while already: in 2015, the intelligence law had in fact introduced them in the homeland security code, under the name "automated processing".
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In concrete terms, they are based on the use of a algorithm, which analyzes the communication data of individuals, and extracts those that could be problematic. These data are not the content of the communications themselves, but rather ancillary information such as the recipient of a message, or the time and place from which it was sent.
They are collected in an "anonymous" manner, but the law provides for making it possible to identify people whose communications are "likely to characterize the existence of a terrorist threat." For this, you must first obtain the approval of the Prime Minister or a delegate, after consulting the CNCTR. The data thus “de-anonymized” can be used “within sixty days” after their collection. They are then destroyed, unless the existence of a threat has been confirmed in the meantime.
The "black boxes" hitherto considered "not activated" have actually been used in France for a month, reveals the president of the CNCTR Francis Delon #monitoring1411
—Elsa Trujillo (@Elsa_Trujillo_) 14th November 2017
The "black boxes" have been used for a month now to monitor communication data on the internet.
WOCinTech
Digital freedom advocates worried
When they had been presented, the "black boxes" had been the subject of many questions, even of criticism. Defenders of digital freedoms, including Amnesty International, the Squaring the net or the National Digital Council, feared that they were a mechanism for "mass surveillance" insufficiently controlled.
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A reserve which at the time was shared by Francis Delon himself. During a hearing in September 2015 reported by Numerama, he had explained to "understand" the concerns about using an algorithm in the given framework, since "software [is] very difficult to verify." "There may be thousands or even millions of lines of code, and verifying that there is nothing hidden is a challenge that will have to be tackled."
Safeguards imposed by law
Two years later, having become president of the CNCTR, Francis Delon seems less worried. If he could not respond to our requests for "agenda questions", his team indicated that the algorithm project had been studied carefully, for "several weeks". This control, specifies Le Monde, was both technical and legal. It was thus verified that it complied with the principle of proportionality, that is to say that the system was not too vast in relation to the results sought.
In addition, the CNCTR assured that only a black box was for the moment tested. And that, as the law recommends, it is subject to several limitations: of time, since the device is only authorized for two months for the moment, and of scope of action. Indeed, the algorithm is only intended for the moment to identify certain "criteria" which are not made public "for obvious security reasons."
If the intelligence services wish to extend the system beyond one of these limits, a new request will have to be made to the CNCTR, which will give its opinion to the Prime minister. The latter is free to go or not in the direction of the opinion. But the Commission, in the event of disagreement, has the power to seize the Council of State.
source: L'Express.fr
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