France’s highest administrative court ruled on Monday to ban Paris police from using ‘Big Brother’ drones in the capital to monitor people to ensure they adhere to coronavirus social distancing rules.
The Conseil d’Etat, which acts as a legal adviser to the government and as a supreme court for administrative justice, said use of drones “constitutes a serious and manifestly unlawful infringement of privacy rights.” It added the ban must come into effect immediately, given the absence of legal framework for the use of the machines.
The legal picture around drones in France is murky and there are no laws that regulate aerial surveillance. Drone laws prevent unauthorised flights over Paris but not those by law enforcement agencies, which operate 400 drones nationwide, according to the Interior Ministry.
Judges said that in order to be able to use these drones, the government will either need to issue a decree to regulate their use, or equip the drones with technical devices preventing the identification of people filmed.
The court ruling follows a lawsuit that was filed by rights groups the Human Rights League and La Quadrature du Net last month in response to the measures.
Activists argue that people are being filmed without knowing it and that there are no limits on how long footage can be stored.
The two groups ordered the Paris police chief to stop recording footage with drones and to destroy any images already taken. They added that the usage of drones to monitor the public goes against fundamental freedoms: the right to privacy, the right to the protection of personal data and the freedom to come and go.
On May 8, a French judge refused to ban the social distancing drones after the two organisations appealed.
Drones have been used elsewhere in Europe to make sure people keep to social distancing rules. There was widespread anger in Britain in March when police used drones to shame people in a public park not following the measures.
