French Parliament adopts controversial law expanding surveillance powers to fight terrorism

PARIS – The French Parliament has adopted a controversial surveillance law aimed at broadening eavesdropping of terrorism suspects, despite protests from privacy advocates and concern about U.S.-style massive data sweeps.

Wednesday’s vote in the National Assembly, months in the making, came as French officialdom was decrying revelations less than a day earlier that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on three French presidents and senior officials.

The law won’t take effect until a court rules on whether it abides by France’s constitution.

The law will entitle intelligence services to place recording devices in suspects’ homes and beacons on their cars without prior authorization from a judge. It would also force communication and Internet firms to allow intelligence services to install electronic boxes to record metadata from all Internet users in France.