The French Government has denied running a vast spying programme targeting phone calls and electronic communications, Le Monde reported Friday.
The newspaper quoted unnamed aides to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault as saying the allegations published by the same newspaper on Thursday, which compared the programme with the US Prism programme, were “inaccurate.” The paper claims that the external intelligence agency DGSE had been intercepting electromagnetic signals from phones and computers for years and storing the data on giant computers at its headquarters.
The data gathered showed who was communicating with whom but not what they said, according to the report, which claimed the programme was operated outside the law.
Ayrault’s aides told the paper that several intelligence services “carry out security interceptions.” But they are all legal and authorized by the prime minister, who acts on the advice of the independent National Commission for the Control of Security Interceptions, the aides said.
The allegations come amidst an ongoing furore over revelations that the US carried out massive spying of phone and electronic data.
France’s reaction to the allegations were muted until it was reported that the US National Security Agency had bugged the offices of the European Union and the embassies of several European governments.
Hollande has demanded that the spying stop “immediately”.