1. License Plate Readers: Vehicles Become Permanent Tracking Devices
Article 15 expands the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to cover a wide range of new offenses, including aiding illegal residency—a charge that could target civic activists.
The data will be centralized in the STCL database, with the retention period extended to one year, representing approximately 700 million registered license plates. Municipalities, highway operators, and private parking lots will be able to transmit their records to the government.
Consequence: A driver’s movements will remain traceable for several months after the fact.
2. Intelligence: Algorithms Applied to Vehicle Movements (Art. 15 bis)
Intelligence agencies are granted direct access to LAPI data, outside the context of any criminal investigation and without prior notification to the CNCTR, the supervisory authority.
The data will be retained for four months and may be subject to algorithmic processing aimed at detecting “suspicious vehicle movements.” This is an opaque system, with no prior judicial oversight.
3. Algorithmic video surveillance extended through 2030 (Art. 19)
The pilot program for cameras equipped with artificial intelligence, capable of identifying “suspicious behavior” in real time, is extended through December 31, 2030.
Its scope is expanding: it will no longer be limited to the vicinity of major events, but will extend to places open to the public and inside buildings. Streets, parks, and city centers will therefore be monitored by these systems for the next four and a half years.
Not to mention:
•Chat Control 1.0 — reinstated by the European Parliament on July 9, 2026, through April 2028, authorizing major platforms to voluntarily scan messaging services.
•CSAR Regulation — still under negotiation, it would make this scanning a legal requirement, including for encrypted messaging services.
•European Digital Identity (eIDAS 2.0) — a unique identifier designed to link healthcare, banking, employment, and administrative procedures.
•Online age verification — a requirement to prove one’s identity to access certain platforms, at the expense of anonymity.
Eight measures. Eight separate votes. Eight justifications cited in turn: drug trafficking, terrorism, major events, child protection. The package as a whole was never put up for debate, because it was never presented as a package.
That’s the method: you don’t put a surveillance society to a vote; you have it adopted piece by piece.
