Civil rights groups are outraged by a new database which the French domestic intelligence agency DCRI (Direction centrale du renseignement interieur), which is regarded as the French FBI and was originally envisaged by a former minister of the interior called Nicholas Sarkozy, has started to roll out.

The database Edvige (exploitation documentaire et valorisation de l’information générale) is being fed with spicy details such as ethnicity, health and sexual orientation, which has sparked the attention of gay and lesbian rights organisations. Citizens from age 13 who just might happen to pose a future threat to public order can be saved in the database, even if they have not yet been convicted of any sort of crime. Apart from that, citizens striving for some sort of leadership role in the economy, in a union or in politics are also fodder for Edvige.

Civil rights groups have launched an online petition bound to make no change at all to express their wish that someone pull sweet Edviges plug. More than 43.000 and 310 organisations have signed the petition to date.

Seven trade unions and a human rights group - in the knowledge that online petitions don't really impress anyone except the signees - are going to appeal to the high court Conseil d'Etat to get the bill revoked, which is being enforced since July 1 of this year.

The DCRI was crafted from two agencies, namely the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST) and the Renseignements Generaux (RG). The former spied on terrorists, the latter on such atrocious entities as trade unions, political groups and anti-globalisation activists, who might cause bother to their masters whilst they're busy eating snails with silver cutlery. X

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